Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary - alewife

 I. noun  Date: 15th century a woman who keeps an alehouse  II. noun  (plural alewives)  Etymology: perhaps alteration of obsolete allowes, a kind of shad, from French alose shad, from Old French, from Late Latin alausa  Date: 1633 a food fish (Alosa pseudoharengus) of the herring family that is very abundant along the Atlantic coast; also any of several related fishes (as the menhaden)