ganoid, a. and n.
(ˈgænɔɪd)
[a. F. ganoïde (Agassiz), f. Gr. γάνος brightness + -ειδής: see -oid.]
A. adj.
1. Of a fish-scale: Having a smooth shining surface, from being covered with a layer of enamel.
| 1854 Owen in Circ. Sc., Organ. Nat. I. 46/2 The ganoid plates..are..more close set. 1872 Nicholson Palæont. 307 Ganoid scales..occur also in some of the Bony Fishes. |
2. Of a fish: Covered with polished bony plates or scales; distinctive epithet of an order of fishes (mod.L. Ganoidei).
| 1847 Ansted Anc. World iv. 62 The first of the two groups, that of which the sturgeon and the bony pike are characteristic, is called Ganoid. 1859 Darwin Orig. Spec. iv. (1878) 83 It is in the fresh water basins that we find seven genera of ganoid fishes. 1876 Page Adv. Text-bk. Geol. xviii. 343 Of the fishes the majority are still placoid and ganoid. |
B. n. A ganoid fish.
| 1839 G. Roberts Dict. Geol., Ganoïds or Ganoïdians, Dr. Agassiz's second order of fishes. 1859 Darwin Orig. Spec. xi. (1878) 308 The ganoids stand intermediate between the selaceans and teleosteans. 1878 A. H. Green, etc. Coal ii. 52 All the modern Ganoids, with the exception of the sturgeon, are fresh-water fish. |
Hence gaˈnoidal a. = ganoid A. 2. gaˈnoidean a. and n., gaˈnoidian a. and n. = ganoid A. 2 and B.
| 1839 Ganoïdians [see ganoid B]. 1841 H. Miller O.R. Sandst. iv. 73 A fourth order, the Ganoidean or shining-scaled order. 1854 ― Sch. & Schm. xxiv. (1857) 527, I formed my first imperfect acquaintance with the recent ganoidal fishes in 1836. 1861 Geikie in Gd. Words Feb. 75 There are still some representatives of the ganoidal type of fish. |