Resembling or characteristic of a gilp or gilpey (young salmon or young female animal); small or young-looking.
From gilpey or related dialectal fish/animal terms + -y (adjectival suffix). Scottish/Northern English dialect formation for describing something as young or small.
In fishing communities, having adjectives for 'small-fish-like' was essential—gilpy could quickly describe a creature's size and age, proving that technical vocabulary was as important to fishermen as it is to programmers today.
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