Common name of Cephaloscyllium ventriosum
 
Common name Swell shark
Language English
Type AFS
Official trade name No
Rank 1 - (Legal common name (unique))
Country United States (contiguous states)
Locality
Ref. Page, L.M., H. Espinosa-PĂ©rez, L.T. Findley, C.R. Gilbert, R.N. Lea, N.E. Mandrak, R.L. Mayden and J.S. Nelson, 2013
Life stage juveniles and adults
Sex females and males
Core primary lexeme
1st modifier habitat/ecology
2nd modifier
Remarks 'shark', of obscure origins but appears to have been introduced to English in the late 1560s by members of Sir John Hawkins' expedition (a ballad of 1569 recorded 'There is no proper name for [the fish] that I know, but that certain men of Captain Hawkins' doth call it a shark'), but it is not known where they got it from. A resemblance to Austrian dialect 'schirk', i.e., sturgeon has been noted (p. 471 in Ref. 11979). Also Ref. 276, 12091, 52299.
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