Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Capelin

Capelin , noun

[Compare French capelan, caplan.]

(Zoology) Either of two small marine fishes formerly classified in the family Salmonida, now within the smelt family Osmeridae: Mallotus villosus, very abundant on the coasts of Greenland, Iceland, Newfoundland, and Alaska; or Mallotus catervarius, found in the North Pacific. The Atlantic variety has been used as a bait for the cod.

This fish, which is like a smelt, is called by the Spaniards anchova, and by the Portuguese capelina. However the anchovy used as a food is a different fish.