An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Labberdan

by Friedrich Kluge

Labberdan, masculine, ‘codfish,’ Modern High German only, from Low German; to this are allied, with remarkable divergences, Dutch labberdaan, earlier abberdaan and slabberdaan, and English haberdine, with the same sense. The word is based not on the name of the Scotch town Aberdeen, but on tractus Laburdanus, a part of the Basque country (Bayonne used to be called Laburdum, French Labourd), It must have been introduced into the Netherlands through a French medium; the form abberdaen is due to the error of regarding the initial l as the article. Compare also Kabliau.