burbot
(ˈbɜːbət)
Forms: 5 borbot (6 borbotha), 7 burbott, -bate, -bout, 8–9 burbolt, (7–8 bird-bolt), 7– burbot, (9 burbet, barbott).
[a. F. bourbotte (Littré), bourbete (Godef.), bourbette (Cotgr.); the usual mod.F. form is barbote, barbotte; cf. bourboter, barbotter, to dabble or wallow in mud. (The variant bird-bolt appears to be due merely to popular etymology.)]
A fresh-water fish (Lota vulgaris) of the family Gadidæ, somewhat like an eel, but with a flat head, having two small ‘beards’ on the nose and one on the chin. Also called Eel-pout or Coney-fish.
| a 1475 in Rel. Ant. I. 85 The borbottus and the stykyl⁓bakys. c 1520 Andrew Noble Lyfe in Babees Bk. (1868) 231 Borbotha be fisshes very slepery, somewhat lyke an ele hauinge wyde mouthes & great hedes, it is a swete mete. 1605 in Archæologia (1800) XIII. 348 These Fishe bee nowe in seasone..Burbott. 1679 Plot Staffordsh. (1686) 241 In Staffordshire..it is call'd a Burbot or bird-bolt, perhaps from that sort of Arrow rounded at head, somewhat like this fishes. 1769 Pennant Zool. III. 163 Burbot or Bird⁓bolt. 1772 Forster in Phil. Trans. LXIII. 150 The four kinds of Hudson's Bay fish are the Sturgeon, the Burbot, the Gwyniad..the Sucker. 1865 Kingsley Herew. xxix, The knights think scorn of any thing worse than smelts and burbot. 1883 Fisheries Exhib. Catal. (ed. 4) 106 Barbott (or Eelpout). |