tangfish

English

Etymology

tang (“seaweed”) +‎ fish

Noun

tangfish (plural not attested)

  1. (UK, dialect) A common or harbour seal (Phoca vitulina).
    • 1813-1831, Brewster, David (1781-1868), Second American Edition of the New Edinburgh Encyclopædia, New York: Samuel Whiting and John L. Tiffany [and others], page 128:
      The coasts of Shetland swarm with the smaller seals, or Tangfish, so named from being supposed to live among the Tang, or larger fuci that grow near the shore.
    • 1863, Sidney Hall, Guide to the Highlands and Western Islands of Scotland Including Orkney and Shetland, page 791:
      a noted retreat of seals or selkies, or tangfish, as they are vernacularly called in Zetland
    • 2015, Victoria Dickenson, Seal, page 95:
      On the rugged shores of Orkney there are two kinds of seal – the common seal or 'tangfish' (seaweed fish) of the Shetlands […] and the great grey seal

References

  • “tangfish”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

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