ˈsea-horse
[Cf. G. seepferd, seeross.]
1. The walrus. [Cf. horse-whale, horse n. 28 b.]
| c 1475 Pict. Voc. in Wr-Wülcker 765/2 [Nomina piscium marinorum] Hoc rosina, a sehors. 1585 Jas. I Ess. Poesie (Arb.) 16 Daulphins, Seahorse, Selchs with oxin ee, And Merswynis, Pertrikis als of fishes race. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 748 note, Some call the Morse a Sea horse. a 1682 Sir T. Browne Of Greenland Wks. 1835 IV. 375 The stomachs of sea horses or morses. 1877 W. Jones Finger-ring 148 A ring made of a sea-horse's tooth. |
¶ By extension apparently applied to the narwhal.
| 1674 tr. Martiniere's Voy. 115 The Horn of this Sea-horse, was full ten foot long,..wreathed..tapering. |
2. A fabulous horse-like marine animal.
As represented in heraldry (and formerly in pageants) it has the fore-parts of a horse and the tail of a fish, like the steeds (
equi bipedes, Verg.
Georg. iv. 389) drawing the chariots of Neptune and Proteus as depicted in ancient paintings.
| 1587 Fleming Contn. Holinshed III. 1340/1 Before the which [sc. the mint] there was a huge and monstrous sea⁓horsse of twentie foot high. 1648 Herrick Hesper., His Cavalier, That dares bestride The active sea-horse, and..Through that huge field of waters ride. a 1700 Evelyn Diary 27 Feb. 1644, In the third is Neptune sounding his trumpet, his charriot drawne by sea-horses. 1761 Ann. Reg. 238 The fishmongers pageants consisted of..two mairmaids and two Sea-horses. 1780 Edmondson Heraldry II. Gloss., Sea-Horse, the upper part is formed like the horse, with webbed feet, and the hinder part ends in a fish's tail. 1874 Black Pr. Thule 9 The black sea-horse that had been seen in Loch Suainabhal. 1885 Encycl. Brit. XIX. 559/1 s.v. Poseidon, Sometimes he was represented riding a bull, a horse, or a sea-horse. |
3. a. = hippocampus 2.
| 1589 Rider Bibl. Scholast. 1723 A sea horse, hippocampa. 1721 Bradley Philos. Acc. Wks. Nat. 69, Fig. 111. The Shell-Fish call'd the Sea-Horse, found upon the Coast of Italy. 1862 Ansted Channel Isl. ii. ix. 213 The curious little sea horse (hippocampus brevirostris). |
b. The acanthopterygian fish
Agriopus torvus (
Cent. Dict.).
flying sea-horse or
winged sea-horse: a fish of the order or sub-order
Pegasidæ.
| 1854 A. Adams, etc. Man. Nat. Hist. 83 The Pegasi, or Flying Sea-Horses. Ibid. 94 Winged Sea-Horses (Pegasidæ). |
† 4. The hippopotamus.
Obs.| 1600 J. Pory tr. Leo's Africa Introd. 30 The teeth of sea⁓horses: which creatures are commonly found in the riuers of Nilus, Niger, &c. 1678 Dryden All for Love i. 1 Sea-Horses floundring in the slimy mud. 1700 C. Leigh Nat. Hist. Lanc. etc. i. 183 A young Hippopotamus or Sea-Horse. 1759 tr. M. Adanson's Voy. Senegal 133 The hippoptami [sic] or sea horses, are common. |
5. A large white-crested wave;
cf. white horse,
horse n. 24 b.
| 1877 N.W. Linc. Gloss., Sea-dogs, Sea-hosses, rough waves in the Humber and Trent. 1886 A. Pember Slipping away i, Alice's eyes are fixed on the white sea-horses. |
6. attrib. (senses 1 and 4), as
sea-horse fat,
sea-horse hide,
sea-horse leather,
sea-horse oil,
sea-horse skin,
sea-horse tooth.
| 1764 Ann. Reg. ii. 12 The whale and the *sea horse fat they also boil with roots. |
| 1601 Holland Pliny vi. xxix. I. 144 There may a man have plentie of the *Sea-horse hides. |
| a 1682 Sir T. Browne Comm.-pl. Bks. Wks. 1835 IV. 396 A girdle of *sea-horse leather. |
| 1820 Scoresby Acc. Arctic Reg. I. 507 On this adventure, 22 tons of *Sea-horse oil..were obtained. |
| 1626 Bacon Sylva §964 Rings of *Sea-Horse Teeth. 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, Sea-horse tooth, a name given to the teeth of the walrus, and of the hippopotamus, which yield ivory. |