catfishn.

1620 J. Mason Briefe Disc. New-found-land sig. B What should I speake of..Crabbes,..Catfish, & c.

1697 W. Dampier New Voy. around World vi. 148 The Catfish is much like a Whiting... It hath a great wide Mouth, and certain small Strings pointing out from each side of it, like Cats Whiskers.

1710 R. Sibbald Hist. Fife & Kinross ii. iii. 51 Lupus Marinus..our Fishers call it, the Sea-Cat, or Cat-fish.

1769 T. Pennant Brit. Zool. (new ed.) III. iv. 88 Greater Cat fish. [Given as a synonym for the greater dogfish].

1773 H. Williamson in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 65 96 Its head was flat and its mouth wide, like that of a cat-fish.

1818 T. Hulme Jrnl. 16 July in W. Cobbett Year's Resid. U.S.A. (1819) iii. 350 Saw a cat-fish in the market, just caught out of the river by a hook and line, four feet long and eighty pounds weight.

1834 G. Bennett Wanderings New S. Wales I. 343 The ‘Cat-fish’, (Silurus,) said to have the power of stinging with the tentaculae or feelers, which pend from about the external part of the mouth,..and several species of bream, were caught in..the splendid harbour of Port Jackson.

1851 J. Henderson Excurs. New S. Wales II. 207 The Cat-fish, which I have frequently caught in the McLeay, is a large and very ugly animal.

1864 J. T. Baines Explor. S.-W. Afr. i. 3 Beyond was a broad flat, covered with cat, dog and other mud-frequenting fish.

1871 Cape Monthly Mag. II. 135 A most horrible creature called a ‘catfish’, but which ought more properly to have been named ‘a sea devil’,..as it was all arms and legs, and huge goggle-eyed head.

1878 Daily News 16 Sept. 3/7 A large catfish..was placed in the tank, whereupon the bass immediately combined their forces and commenced an attack on the intruder.

1897 T. J. Parker & W. A. Haswell Text-bk. Zool. II. 212 The Cat-fishes (Siluridæ).

1900 H. A. Bryden Animals Afr. 196 When..African rivers dry up, there is nothing left for the Cat-fish but to burrow in the mud.

1947 K. H. Barnard Pictorial Guide S. Afr. Fishes iii. 59 The best known South African river Cat-fish is the Mud-Barbel or Platkop Barger (Clarias mossambicus).

1963 P. H. Greenwood Norman's Hist. Fishes (ed. 2) xvi. 284 The only fishes of the order Ostariophysi in the Australian region are certain freshwater genera and species of Cat-fishes. These belong to two families (Ariidae; Plotosidae)... The characteristic African families of..Cat-fishes (Clariidae, Mochocidae, Amphiliidae, etc.).

1678 E. Phillips New World of Words (new ed.) Catfish, a sort of Fish in some parts of the West Indies, so called from the Round-head, and large glaring Eyes, by which they are discovered in the Concavities of the Rocks.

1759 H. Baker in Philos. Trans. 1758 (Royal Soc.) 50 785 Sea Polypi are frequent in the Meditteranean..A different species..came from the West Indies, where it is called a Cat-fish.

1880 W. H. Patterson Gloss. Words Antrim & Down Cat-fish, a cuttle fish, Sepia officinalis.