dogfish
pronunciation
How to pronounce dogfish in British English:
UK [ˈdɒɡfɪʃ]
How to pronounce dogfish in American English:
US [ ˈdɔːɡfɪʃ]
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- Noun:
- primitive long-bodies carnivorous freshwater fish with a very long dorsal fin; found in sluggish waters of North America
- any of several small sharks
Word Origin
- dogfish (n.)
- a name for various types of small shark, late 15c., dokefyche, from dog (n.) + fish (n.). Said to be so called because they hunt in packs. This was the image of sharks in classical antiquity as well. But in the Mediterranean, among the Greeks and Romans of antiquity, closer contact with sharks had left an impression of vicious dogs of the sea. Thus, Pliny's canis marinus. The metaphor of the dog spread to the North to dominate the European image of the shark, from the Italian pescecane and French chien de mer to the German Meerhund and Hundfisch and English sea dog and dogfish. [Tom Jones, "The Xoc, the Sharke and the Sea Dogs," in "Fifth Palenque Round Table, 1983," edited by Virginia M. Field, 1985.]
Example
- 1. Dogfish and other sharks , frozen .
- 2. Smooth dogfish of european coastal waters .
- 3. By this time he must have been swallowed by the dogfish who for several days has been playing havoc in these waters .
- 4. In the spiny dogfish alkane implication sea the mineral substance and the trace element , give the flesh supplement nutrition .
- 5. Species targeted this way in uk waters include the shortfin mako , blue , smooth hammerheads and thresher sharks , as well as species such as portuguese dogfish and gulper sharks .