▪ I. sculpin, n.
(ˈskʌlpɪn)
Also 8 scolping, sculpion, 9 skulpin, sculpen, sculping.
[? Corruption of scorpene.]
1. A name for various small worthless fish having a spiny appearance: a. A fish of the genus Callionymus, e.g. C. draco; b. A fish of the genus Cottus, e.g. C. virginianus; c. Hemitripterus hispidus or americanus; d. Scorpæna guttata (see scorpene); also † sculpin fish.
| 1672 W. Hughes Amer. Physit. 7 A Sculpin Fish..called by us in those parts, the Sea Hedge-Hog. 1712 E. Cooke Voy. S. Sea 342 The Sea Porcupine, or a sort of Sculpion. 1767 tr. Cranz' Greenland I. 95 The Ulkes, scorpius marinus, which we call Toadfish, or in Newfoundland Scolping. 1778 Cook Voy. Pacific iv. v. (1784) II. 379 We caught a few sculpins about the ship. a 1849 Hawthorne Twice-told T., Village Uncle, The very air was fishy, being perfumed with dead sculpins, hardheads, and dogfish. 1860 O. W. Holmes Prof. Breakf.-t. i, Now the Sculpin (Cottus Virginianus) is a little water-beast which pretends to consider itself a fish. 1884 Goode, etc. Nat. Hist. Aquatic Anim. 258 ‘Deep-water Sculpin’... This fish, Hemitripterus hispidus or H. americanus, attains the length of two feet, and is conspicuous by reason of its russet-orange or brick-red colors [etc.]. 1890 E. Gosse Life of P. H. Gosse 114 The large, richly coloured sculpen (Cottus), so common in the clear water round the wharves of Carbonear. |
2. transf. A mean, worthless person or animal.
| 1833 Marryat P. Simple ii, What are you gaping at, you young sculping? 1836 Haliburton Clockm. Ser. i. xxvii, Go along, you old sculpin [a horse], and turn out your toes. 1877 S. O. Jewett Deephaven (1893) 105 Ye see the miser'ble sculpin thought I'd never stop to open the goods. |
▪ II. ˈsculpin, a. U.S.
(ˈskʌlpɪn)
[f. prec.]
Worthless, despicable.
| 1864 Lowell Fireside Trav. 126 Existence on such sculpin terms,..What is it all but dross to me. |