ˈsea-fan
[fan n.1]
An alcyonarian polyp of the sub-order Gorgoniacea, esp. Rhipidogorgia (Gorgonia) flabellum.
| 1633 Johnson Gerarde's Herbal App. xxiv. 1617 Frutex marinus reticulatus. Sea Fan. 1664 Power Exp. Philos. i. 5 The Common Fly: her wings look like a Sea-fan with black thick ribs or fibers dispers'd and branch'd through them. 1755 J. Ellis Corallines 67 Keratophyton flabelliforme..Warted Sea-fan. 1902 G. C. Bourne in Encycl. Brit. XXV. 456/2 The most familiar example [of the Axifera] is the pink sea-fan, Gorgonia Cavolinii. |
| attrib. 1789 E. Darwin Bot. Gard. i. (1791) 121 Her [sc. the mermaid's] shell-wrack gardens, and her sea-fan bowers. |