Also 7 -coutha, 8 bara- [? Sp.] A large and voracious fish (Sphyræna barracuda) of the Perch family, from six to ten feet in length, found in the seas of the West Indies.
1678. Phillips, Barracoutha.
1734. Mortimer, in Phil. Trans., XXXVIII. 315. The Barracuda. The Flesh of this Fish is very unwholsome.
1772. Cook, Voy. (1790), I. 155. Breams, barracootas, gurnard.
1830. Marryat, King’s Own, xiii. With the … rapidity of a barracouta.
1885. Lady Brassey, In Trades, 331. The Barracuda is … sometimes … good to eat and of excellent flavour, and at others malignantly poisonous.
