wrasse
(ræs)
Also 8 wraws, 8–9 wrass.
[ad. Cornish wrach, mutated form of gwrach = Welsh gwrach wrasse, also old woman (cf. old wife 3). Mod. Cornish dial. has also the form wrath, and wrasse may be an E. plural in -s.]
1. One or other species belonging to the acanthopterygian family Labridæ or esp. the genus Labrus of bony, thick-lipped, marine fishes; esp. the ballan (the ‘old wife’, Labrus maculatus) or the striped, red, or cook species (L. mixtus), found on the British coasts.
| a 1672 Willughby Hist. Pisc. (1686) 319 Turdus vulgatissimus, Tincti marini Venetis: Cornub. Wrasse. Ibid. 320 Cornubiensibus Wrasse dicitur. a 1705 Ray Syn. Pisc. (1713) 136 Turdus vulgatissimus,..the Wrasse, or Old Wife. 1752 J. Hill Hist. Anim. 249 The Wrasse, or Old-wife,..is frequent in the Mediterranean. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. VI. 307 The Labrus or Wrasse [has] the body oval; the head middling; the lips doubled inward. 1860 Gosse Rom. Nat. Hist. 295 The brilliant wrasses dart out and in, decked in scarlet and green. 1888 Encycl. Brit. XXIV. 686/2 Some 450 species of wrasses..are known. |
b. With distinguishing epithet.
comber wrasse, cook wrasse, cuckoo wrasse, rainbow wrasse, red wrasse, small-mouthed wrasse, striped wrasse: see these words.
| 1769 Pennant Brit. Zool. III. 203–8 Ballan Wrasse... Bimaculated Wrasse, L. bimaculata. Trimaculated Wrasse... Striped Wrasse... Gibbous Wrasse. 1776 Ibid. (ed. 4) pl. xlvii, Comber Wrasse. Antient Wrasse. 1836 Yarrell Brit. Fishes I. 279–291 The Green-streaked Wrasse... Red Wrasse, Three-spotted Wrasse [etc.]. 1840 Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. 310 L. Lineatus, the Lineal-streaked,..L. variegatus, the Blue-streaked,..L. carneus, the Three-spotted Wrasse. 1848 Maunder's Treas. Nat. Hist. s.v., Several species of this Acanthopterygious fish, viz...the Cook Wrasse or Blue-striped Wrasse (L. variegatus), the Comber Wrasse (L. comber). 1874 Couch Brit. Fishes III. 30–41 Green Wrass... Scale-rayed Wrasse... Small-mouthed wrass. [etc.]. |
c. N.Z. (See quots.)
| 1872 J. Hector Fishes N. Zealand 108 A small Wrasse,..called the Spotty or Poddly. 1898 Morris Austral Eng. 518/2 Wrasse, this English name..is given, in New Zealand, to Labrichthys bothryocosmus, Richards. Called also Poddly, Spotty, and Kelp-fish. |
2. Without article: Wrasses collectively.
| 1750 Heath Acc. Isl. Scilly 45 The Fish are..Pilchards, Hake, Wrass, Whistlers. 1763 in Pennant Brit. Zool. (1776) I. 143 Where the whistling fish, wraws, and polacks resort. 1878 P. Thomson in Trans. N. Zealand Institute XI. 384 Wrasse, Parrotfish, and Spotties are often in the market. 1883 All Year Round 16 June 16/1 The bill of fare of a family of the neolithic period... They had mullet and wrasse, dogfish and skate. |
3. attrib., as wrasse family, wrasse-fish.
| 1840 tr. Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. 309 Labridæ (the Wrasse, or Rock-fish Family). 1890 Cent. Dict. s.v. Labrus, Wrasse-fish (Labrus maculatus). |