Also beardie-loach. [f. BEARD sb. + -IE = -Y3.] A name given, chiefly in Scotland, to a small fish, the Loach (Cobitis barbatula), from the ‘beards’ or bristles on its gills.
1828. Blackw. Mag., Sept., 274. In mute … hope of some time or other catching a minnow or beardie.
1859. Yarrell, Brit. Fishes (ed. 3), I. 448. The habits of the Beardie in confinement.
