| 释义 |
ˈwater-horse
†1. The hippopotamus. Obs.
1398,1600[see hippopotamus]. 1601Holland Pliny ix. xii. I. 242 Some [water beasts] have a skin over them, and the same hairie, as the Seales and Water-horses [L. hippopotami]. a1642Sir W. Monson Naval Tracts iv. (1704) 425/2 In the Lake of Zembre..there are Water-Horses, and Water-Oxen.
2. A fabled water-spirit appearing in the form of a horse. Cf. kelpie1.
1800Leyden Tour Highlands (1903) 13 The people of the vale had been a good deal alarmed by the appearance of that unaccountable being the water-horse (Each Uisge). 1807Hogg Mountain Bard, Mess John lxiii. note, In some places of the Highlands of Scotland, the inhabitants are still in continual terror of an imaginary being, called The Water Horse. 1893S. O. Addy Hall of Waltheof 85 A fabulous water-goblin mostly appearing in the shape of a gray water⁓horse. 1903Bradford Antiq. July 343 A water-horse or sprite that demands at least one life annually.
3. (See quot. 1792.) Newfoundland.
1777G. Cartwright Jrnl. Labrador (1792) II. 242 Fourteen quintals of fish were washed, the water-horse was carried out, and the green fish were spread. 1792Ibid. III. p. x, Water⁓horse, newly washed codfish, which are laid upon each other to drain before they are spread to dry. 1966A. R. Scammell My Newfoundland 49 The Blanchard women were spreading out green, waterhorse fish. |