| 释义 |
sheat-fish|ˈʃiːtfɪʃ|
Also sheath-fish |ˈʃiːθ-|, sheet-.
[The earlier form sheath-fish is prob. f. sheath1, after the G. schaid(e, scheid(e masc. (now scheiden masc.; OHG. had sceida fem.), which Gesner De Piscibus (1558) regarded as cogn. w. scheide fem. sheath n., supposing that the fish was named from some resemblance in shape to a cavalry scabbard. The later sheat-fish seems to be ad. G. scheidfisch (f. scheid: see above), though that compound appears in Grimm only with a reference to Frisch (1741). The etymology of G. scheid(e, scheiden is unknown.]
a. A large fresh-water fish, Silurus glanis, common in the Danube and other rivers of eastern Europe.
α1589Rider Bibl. Scholast. 1723 A sheath fish, or whale of the river, stella. 1601Holland Pliny ix. li. I. 266 The male sheath-fish or riuer-whale Silurus. 1815Anne Plumptre tr. Lichtenstein's Trav. S. Africa II. 343 A species nearly allied to our silurus glanis, or sheath-fish, which in the systema naturæ is given as an inhabitant of the Nile.
β1611Cotgr., Silure, the rauening sheat fish, or whall of the riuer. a1672Willughby Hist. Pisc. (1686) 128 Silurus Rondeletii... The Sheat-fish. 1796Phil. Trans. LXXXVII. 26 At Aleppo, the gall of the sheet fish, Silurus Glanis..was in particular request. 1853Kingsley Hypatia x, A mighty sheat-fish smokes upon the festive board. 1881E. E. Frewer tr. Holub's 7 Yrs. S. Africa II. i. 30, I succeeded in hooking three large sheatfish.
b. In extended use, as a name for the order Siluridæ or for a subdivision of it which includes the genus Silurus. (See quots.)
α1881Günther in Encycl. Brit. XII. 649/2 The electric sheath-fish of tropical Africa (Malapterurus).
β1851Gosse Nat. Hist., Fishes 227 Siluridæ. (Sheat-fishes.) 1854A. Adams, etc. Man. Nat. Hist. 106 Mailed Sheat-Fishes (Loricariidæ). Ibid., Naked Sheat-Fishes (Pimelodidæ). Ibid. 107 True Sheat-Fishes (Siluridæ) [etc.]. 1883F. Day Indian Fish 31 Of the sheat-fish, or scaleless siluroids, we have twenty-six genera. |