ˈsea-hen
1. A name for the piper-gurnard, Trigla lyra, and the lump-fish, Cyclopterus lumpus.
[Cf. G. seehahn (= ‘sea-cock’), applied to both fishes.]
| 1611 Cotgr., Poullarde, the Sea-henne; a fish. 1684 Sibbald Scotia Illustr. ii. II. 24 Lyra, quibusdam the Crowner, aliis ex nostratibus the Sea-Hen. 1892 H. A. Macpherson Vertebr. Fauna of Lakeland 480 The fisher⁓men of the English Solway generally apply the title of ‘Sea hen’ to this species [Cyclopterus lumpus]. |
2. A local name for the common guillemot, Uria troile, and the great skua, Stercorarius catarrhactes.
| a 1672 Willughby Ornith. iii. iii. iv. (1676) 244 Northumbris & Dunelmensibus, a Guillemot or Sea-hen. 1852 Macgillivray Brit. Birds V. 318 Uria Troile. Foolish Guillemot... Sea-hen. 1879 Kumlien Contrib. Nat. Hist. Arctic Amer. 94 Buphagus skua... ‘Sea-hen’ of whalemen. |