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    Apart from learning that the 'Dover Sharks' beat Maidstone at something, I've no luck so far with the phrase, except...

    I have been down the dark alley of the origins of the word 'shark' in English. Fascinating stuff. While 'Dogfish' can be explained from the Greek, why we end up with Shark is a thorny issue. I learn from The Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute that we may have gleaned the word from South America in the mid sixteenth century from the Yucatec 'xoc'. Through one of a series of expeditions of William and John (later 'Sir') Hawkins in the 1560s. A specimen (the first specimen?) of Shark was exhibited in London in 1569.

    The dark alley...

    http://www.mesoweb.com/pari/publications/RT07/Xoc.pdf

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