bluefishn.
/ˈbluːfɪʃ/, U.S. /ˈbluˌfɪʃ/ 1. Any of several perciform marine fishes constituting the family Pomatomidae; spec. Pomatomus saltatrix, widespread in most warmer seas, which is a popular food and game fish.
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the world > animals > fish > superorder Acanthopterygii (spiny fins) > order Perciformes (perches) > suborder Percoidei > [noun] > miscellaneous type of
bluefish1622
parrotfish1656
emperor1666
blue hound-fish1672
green fish1743
reef fish1872
blue1885
flagtail1905
basslet1928
schoolmistress fish1929
1622 J. Pory Let. in Lost Descr. Plymouth Colony (1918) 39 Now as concerning the blew fish, in delicacie it excelleth all kinde of fish that ever I tasted.
1672 J. Josselyn New-Englands Rarities 96 Blew Fish, or Horse..It is common in New-England and esteemed the best sort of Fish next to Rock Cod.
1735 C. Mortimer in Philos. Trans. 1733–4 (Royal Soc.) 38 318 Novacula cærulea... The Blue-Fish.
a1757 P. H. Bruce Memoirs (1782) xii. 424 The sea hereabouts [sc. the Bahamas] abounds with fish unknown to us in Europe..parrot-fish, blue-fish, sucking-fish.
1844 Boston Jrnl. Nat. Hist. 4 261 No fish is more highly prized by the fishermen, or of more importance to them, than the Blue-fish.
1880 A. Günther Introd. Study of Fishes 447 Temnodon saltator... On the coasts of the United States it is well known by the name of ‘Blue-fish’.
1913 Sat. Evening Post (Philadelphia) 22 Feb. 33/1 The bluefish of three or four pounds coming up the North Carolina coast in March returns in October weighing ten to fifteen pounds.
1947 K. H. Barnard Pict. Guide S. Afr. Fishes iii. 108 The Elf (Pomatomus saltator)..known in Natal as the Shad.., and in other parts of the world as the Bluefish, Skipjack, Tailer, etc.
1972 G. C. Matthiessen in M. J. Ursin Life in & around Salt Marshes Introd. p. xiv Why do such highly prized sportsfish as striped bass and bluefish congregate at the mouths of tidal creeks and inlets?
2000 M. Winter This All Happened v. 115 I have walked down to Lydia's to make Boston bluefish chowder with clams and shrimp.
2. Australian and New Zealand. The blue drummer, Girella cyanea (family Kyphosidae), an edible sea chub with a bright blue body, found in the south-west Pacific.
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the world > animals > fish > superorder Acanthopterygii (spiny fins) > order Perciformes (perches) > suborder Percoidei > [noun] > member of family Kyphosidae (rudder-fish)
rudderfish1735
bluefish1790
rudder perch1828
chopa1883
1790 R. Clark Jrnl. 19 Apr. 159 16 fishes consisting of Snappers Blue Fish and one Rock Cod.
1889 Lord Howe Island 56 Girella cyanea..the ‘Blue-fish’ is abundant at all seasons.
1921 N.Z. Jrnl. Sci. & Technol. 4 116 Blue-fish; Korokoropounamu. A rare and highly esteemed fish, secured up to 6lb. in deep water off Cape Brett.
1956 B. Beatty Beyond Australia's Cities 158 You can land fish after fish after fish,..blue-fish, zebra-fish, and maybe a shark or two.
1982 T. Ayling Collins Guide Sea Fishes N.Z. (1984) 229 Bluefish (Blue drummer, korokoropounamu)... As the name suggests their body colour is a uniform bright blue.
2003 Ecology 84 519/2 Other fish that may be prone to increased mortality due to fishing have high correlations with the canonical axis, e.g., blue fish (Girella cyanea).
3. Chiefly Canadian. A grayling, Thymallus arcticus, found esp. in arctic areas of northern North America and Siberia.
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the world > animals > fish > class Osteichthyes or Teleostomi > order Salmoniformes (salmon or trout) > family Salmonidae (salmon) > [noun] > genus Thymallus > member of (grayling)
graylingc1450
umber1496
umbra1610
esch1659
thyme fish1756
bluefish1807
blanket fish1870
Michigan grayling1879
pink1901
shutt1939
1807 W. Wentzel Let. 27 Mar. in L. R. Masson Bourgeois de la Compagnie du Nord-ouest (1889) I. 84 The different sorts of fish to be met with in the lakes and rivers of these deserts are the large and the salmon trout,..pike, blue fish, tolliby and Loche.
1823 Mon. Rev. Oct. 172 C[oregonus] signifer, Back's Grayling, or the Blue Fish of the fur-traders, is a most elegant species.
1874 N. D'Anvers tr. J. Verne Fur Country iv. 21 Pikes, voracious lobes, a sort of charr or grayling called ‘blue fish’, and countless legions of tittamegs..disported themselves in the water [of Slave Lake].
1924 M. H. Mason Arctic Forests 44 Grayling or ‘bluefish’ are baked in ashes.
1961 C. Vyvyan Arctic Adventure ix. 54 He took me out in his canoe to the fish-nets where we found Corny, Jack-fish and Blue-fish.
2009 P. Thompson Freshwater Game Fish N. Amer. iii. 110 Arctic Grayling... Local Names: Grayling, Bluefish, Sailfin Arctic grayling, Arctic trout, Back's grayling.
Derivatives
ˈbluefishing n. fishing for bluefish (sense 1).
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the world > food and drink > hunting > fishing > fishing for type of fish > [noun] > for other fish
grayling fishing1704
sun fishery1782
drum fishing1818
jack fishing1820
bluefishing1838
drumming1849
snappering1870
stingareeing1871
barbelling1876
swordfishing1879
pollacking1886
weakfishing1888
snoeking1937
1838 Sportsman Jan. 26/2 The season is late for blue fishing.
1886 Outing Oct. 73/2 From him we learned..that the best bluefishing was to be had right there.
1916 Forest & Stream Oct. 1204/2 A royal sport and pursuit indeed is bluefishing.
2003 J. B. Robinson Sapphire Sea (2008) xiv. 166 Drawing out days on the New Jersey shore into endlessly repetitive summers of sand castles, blue fishing and body surfing.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2013; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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