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Origin and history of squid

squid(n.)

"ten-armed marine mollusk, cuttlefish," 1610s, a word of unknown origin. Klein's sources suggest it is a sailors' variant of squirt and so called for the "ink" it jets.

also from 1610s

Entries linking to squid

squirt(v.)

late 15c., squirten, squyrten "to spit water from the mouth" (intransitive), a word of uncertain origin, perhaps via Middle Dutch or Middle Low German, probably ultimately imitative. The transitive sense of "cause to issue in a sudden jet or stream" is from 1580s. The transitive meaning "issue in a stream with sudden force" is by 1858. Related: Squirted; squirting. Squirt-gun "syringe" is attested from 1803 (in a satire of medical fads):

Come on ! Begin the grand attack
With aloes, squills, and ipecac ;
And then with glyster-pipe and squirt-gun,
There will be monstrous deal of hurt done!

["Christopher Caustic, M.C., LL.D. ASS.," "Terrible Tractoration!! A Poetical Petition Against Galvanising Trumpery and the Perkinstic Institution, in Four Cantos," London, 1803]

As a toy, by 1871.

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