sawfish
(ˈsɔːfɪʃ)
[saw n.1 Cf. L. serra sawfish (lit. ‘saw’).]
A fish of the genus Pristis, the snout of which ends in a long flat projection with teeth on each edge; a saw-shark of the family Pristiophoridæ (cf. saw-shark s.v. saw n.1 5 d). Also applied to fishes of certain allied genera.
| 1664 Hubert Catal. Rarities (1665) 17 A Saw-fish, vulgarly called the Sword-fish. 1668 Charleton Onomast. 123 Monoceros Clusii, the little Vnicorn, or Saw-fish. 1681 Grew Musæum i. §v. i. 84 The Saw-Fish. Pristis. 1796 Stedman Surinam I. i. *11 Another animal, which is called the saw-fish, carries also an offensive weapon. 1860 G. Bennett Gatherings Naturalist Austral. 35 There is a species of Saw-fish peculiar to the Australian seas. 1863 Wood Illustr. Nat. Hist. III. 216 The Tentaculated Saw⁓fish (Pristiophorus cirratus). 1880 A. C. L. G. Gunther Introd. Study of Fishes 335 These Sharks [sc. Pristiophoridæ] resemble so much the common Saw-fishes as to be easily confounded with them. 1934 Sun (Baltimore) 6 July 1/7 A saw fish measuring ten feet nine inches..was landed. 1978 O. White Silent Reach xii. 124 Sometimes you catch sawfish and barramundi there. |