ˈmoon-fish
A name used for several pale-coloured marine fishes having thin, moon-shaped bodies, esp. the opah, Lampris guttatus, a sunfish, Mola mola, or a North American fish of the genera Selene or Vomer.
| 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iii. xxiv. 169 The Moone fish, or Orthragoriscus. 1681 Grew Musæum i. 102 Moon⁓fish, Mola Salviani Luna; Because the Tail-fin is shaped like a Half-Moon. 1810 Nat. Hist. in Ann. Reg. 631/2 The moon-fish (tetraodon mola). 1845 Storer Synopsis Fishes N. Amer. in Mem. Amer. Acad. II. 339 Ephippus gigas, Parkinson... Called ‘Moon-fish’ in the Antilles. 1873 [see angel-fish]. 1878 Proc. U.S. Nat. Museum I. 376 Argyriosus vomer.—Moon-fish. Ibid., Selena argentea.—Moon-fish... Not common. Ibid., Vomer setipinnis.—Moon-fish; Sun-fish. 1883 Goode Fish. Indust. U.S. 17 (Fish. Exhib. Publ.) Moon⁓fish Chætodipterus faber. 1884 ― Nat. Hist. Aquatic Anim. 322 Selene setipinnis..known..in North Carolina as the ‘Moonfish’ or ‘Sunfish’. Ibid. 323 The Silver Moonfish—Selene argentea. 1896 Jordan & Evermann Check-List Fishes N. & Mid. Amer. 350 Lampris luna... Mariposa; Opah;..Gudlax; Moonfish. 1959 A. Hardy Fish & Fisheries II. iv. 75 Another wanderer from warmer waters, coming right into the North Sea and occasionally being taken off the Yorkshire coast, is the most brilliantly coloured of all our fishes, the opah or moon-fish, Lampris guttatus (which has in turn also been called the sun-fish). 1963 P. H. Greenwood Norman's Hist. Fishes (ed. 2) xviii. 329 The order [sc. Lampridiformes] includes the large oceanic Opah or Moon-fish (Lampris). 1965 A. J. McClane Standard Fishing Encycl. 499/1 The moonfish (Vomer) have a head profile that is only moderately high. Ibid. 499/2 Both the lookdowns and the moonfish grow to about 10–12 inches. |