slobgollion

“It is called slobgollion; an appellation original with the whalemen, and even so is the nature of the substance.”

Moby Dick, 1851

Slobgollion is whaling slang for a substance found in sperm whale oil, says the OED. In Moby Dick, Melville describes such a substance as “an ineffably oozy, stringy affair,” which is obtained “after a prolonged squeezing, and subsequent decanting.”

While the origin of slobgollion is unknown, earlier meanings of slob include mud or slime, while the second part of the word could be influenced by gullion, a mean and worthless wretch, or gollin, a kind of fish.

A variation is slumgullion, which in addition to fish offal refers to a cheap and watery drink — first used by Mark Twain in Roughing It — as well as a kind of thin stew.