Also 7–9 cavallo, 8 cavalle, cavaly. [ad. Sp. and Pg. cavalla, It. cavallo mackerel; also applied to the horse-mackerel of various tropical seas. Cf. the specific names Caranx caballus, Cybium caballa given to species of horse-mackerel.]
A name given by the 17th-c. navigators to various species of tropical fish, known also as horse-mackerel.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 213. The rest are Breame, Tench, Trowte … Caualloes.
1657. R. Ligon, Barbados, 11–2. Fish … of various kindes … Snappers, grey and red; Cavallos, Carpians, &c.
1697. Dampier, Voy., I. The chiefest Fish are Bonetas, Snooks, Cavally’s.
1772–84. Cook, Voy. (1790), V. 1695. We also caught … a great quantity of fish, principally consisting of cavallies.
1803. T. Winterbottom, Sierra Leone, I. iv. 69. They have … snappers, mullets, cavallies.
1847. Sir J. Ross, Voy. Antarctic Reg., II. 117. A kind of mackarel, called yellow tail, and sometimes cavallo.
1885. W. W. Gill, Jottings fr. Pacific, 156. The kukukina, or young cavally, when caught on the hook or in a net, utters an imperfect guttural sound like ‘Ak! ak!’
