sea-swinen.
1. A porpoise. Obsolete exc. dialect.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > order Cetacea (whales) > suborder Odontoceti > [noun] > family Phocaenidae (porpoise)
swineeOE
mereswineeOE
pellock1331
sea-swine1398
porpoisea1425
brownswinec1440
bassinatc1540
pollantine1558
sea-hog1580
hogfish1611
tursion1655
tumbler1694
sea-pig1826
snuffer1829
puffing pig1845
puff-pig1861
puffer1884
1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomew de Glanville De Proprietatibus Rerum (Bodl.) xiii. xxvi Isidre..spekeþ of þe see swyne þat is comynlich icleped suillus.
a1450 Mirk's Festial 2 The iij. day þe seeswyne and þe cloppys of þe see schull stond on þe see and make roryng noyse so hyddous.
1509 H. Watson tr. S. Brant Shyppe of Fooles (de Worde) lxx. sig. Q.vi Loke that thou be well ware of the yre of the see swyne the whiche wyll folowe thy shyppe.
1671 J. Ray in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 6 2279 Most nations calling this fish Porcus Marinus, or the Sea-swine.
1884 Leisure Hour June 374/2 The porpoise..was found on the table of the queen. The Saxons called it sea-swine.
2. Scottish. (See quot. 1880-4.)
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > fish > superorder Acanthopterygii (spiny fins) > order Perciformes (perches) > suborder Labrioidei (wrasse) > [noun] > family Labridae > genus Labrus > member of
breama1475
thrush-fish1601
ballana1705
yellowfish1734
comber1769
sea-swine1803
cuckoo-fish1884
hogfish1898
1803 Sibbald's Fife & Kinross (new ed.) ii. iii. 128 (note) Several of them [sc. Wrasses] are occasionally caught in the Frith of Forth, and are called by our fishers by the general name of Sea Swine.
1880–4 F. Day Fishes Great Brit. & Ireland I. 255 Labrus lineatus... Ballan~wrasse, sea-swine, Moray Firth, owing to its making a squeaking noise like a pig.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1911; most recently modified version published online March 2019).
<
n.1398