perain.
/pᵻˈrʌɪ/, U.S. /pəˈraɪ/, Caribbean English /pɪˈrai/ Now chiefly Caribbean (Guyana).
= piranha n. 1.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > fish > class Osteichthyes or Teleostomi > order Salmoniformes (salmon or trout) > superorder Ostariophysi or order Cypriniformes > [noun] > suborder Characoidei > member of family Serrasalmidae (piranha)
perai1769
caribe1820
devil fish1860
piranha1869
serrasalmonoid1880
1568 T. Hacket tr. A. Thevet New Found Worlde f. 85v Great store of fysshe,..the which they call Piraipouchy..: it is maruellously difformed.]
1769 E. Bancroft Ess. Nat. Hist. Guiana 189 The fish called a peri by the Indians and white inhabitants, is about 18 inches in length.
1826 S. Smith Wks. (1859) II. 75/2 The quivers were close by them, with the jaw-bone of the fish pirai tied by a string to their brim.
1862 J. G. Wood Illustr. Nat. Hist. III. 329 The peraya, or pirai has been removed from the Salmonidae and placed in another family.
1883 Harper's Mag. Dec. 107/2 In the Orinoco is found the perai, whose nest..hangs pendent from some..branch, drifting in the tide.
1958 J. Carew Black Midas vi. 119 It was safe swimming there, but at the bottom of the fall, perae fish and electric eels often lurked near the rocks.
1986 H. Bascom Apata i. i. 15 The bodies..were not fish eaten. This was strange because..voracious, flesh-eating Perai abounded.
2002 Advertiser (Adelaide) (Nexis) 26 Oct. 28 Pirai fish, which are larger than piranhas and have more ferocious teeth, could tear a human to a bony frame in just two minutes.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2005; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1769