Obs. in actual use. [a. Gr. ἔλλοψ or ἔλοψ, the name of a fish and of a serpent.
(The variants ELAPS and ELOPS are used in mod. zoological Latin in different senses).]
1. A kind of serpent.
1667. Milton, P. L., X. 526. Cerastes hornd, Hydrus, and Ellops drear.
2. A kind of fish mentioned by ancient writers.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 266. The Lamprey in Sicilie: the Elops at Rhodes, and so forth of other sorts of fishes.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1862), II. I. iii. 299. The Elops or Sea-serpent.
1775. Ash, Ellops, a fish affording delicious food which some think to be the sturgeon of the moderns.
1875. Browning, Aristoph. Apol., 110. Spends all his substance on stewed ellops-fish.
