sb.
1. A name for various fishes, of rounded form or brilliant appearance, or that bask in the sun.
a. Any fish of the genus Mola (also called Orthagoriscus or Cephalus), comprising large fishes of singularly rounded and ungainly form, found in various seas. b. Any one of the various species of Lepomis, Pomotis, and related genera, small fresh-water fishes abundant in N. America. c. A name for the basking shark: see BASKING ppl. a. 2. d. The OPAH, Lampris luna or guttatus. e. A local name for fishes of the genus Selene; = MOON-FISH c.
a. 1629. Higginson, Jrnl., in Hutchinson Papers (Prince Soc.), I. 43. A large round fish sayling by the ship’s side, about a yard in length and roundness [printed rounders] every way. The mariners called it a sunne fish; it spreadeth out the finnes like beames on every side 4 or 5.
1686. Ray, Willughby’s Hist. Piscium, 151–2.
1734. Phil. Trans., XLI. 343. A Sun-fish weighing about 500 Pound Weight.
1804. Shaw, Gen. Zool., V. II. 438. The Short Sun-Fish is a native of the European seas…: its general appearance rather represents the head of some large fish than a complete animal. Ibid., 439. Oblong Sun-Fish…. Variegated Sun-Fish. Ibid., 440. Pallasian Sun-Fish.
1839. T. Beale, Nat. Hist. Sperm Whale, 212. The ugly sun-fish now and then came floating by.
1879. E. P. Wright, Anim. Life, 456. The Short Sun Fish (Orthagoriscus mola) is not rare on the west coast of Ireland.
b. 1685. Penn, Furth. Acc. Pennsylv., 9. There is the Catfish, or Flathead … Perch, black and white, Smelt, Sunfish, &c.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 482. In the lakes, yellow-perch, sun-fish, salmon-trout.
1888. Goode, Amer. Fishes, 67. The Blue Sun-fish, Lepomis pallidus, is also known as the ‘Blue Bream.’
c. 1746. C. Smith, State of Waterford, xi. 271. This coast is pretty much frequented by Porpoises, Sun-fish, Seals, &c.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XVII. 714/2. Squalus.… The maximus, basking shark, or the sun-fish of the Irish. Ibid. (1886), XXI. 777/2. The Basking Shark (Selache maxima), sometimes erroneously called ‘Sun-Fish’ … may be seen in calm weather … motionless, with the upper part of the back raised above the surface of the water, a habit which it has in common with the true sun-fish (Orthagoriscus).
d. 1884. Encycl. Brit., XVII. 777/1. Opah (Lampris luna)…. From its habit of coming to the surface in calm weather, showing its high dorsal fin above the water, it has also received the name of ‘sun-fish.’
e. 1884. Googe, Nat. Hist. Aquatic Anim., 322. Selene setipinnis … known … in North Carolina as the ‘Moonfish’ or ‘Sunfish.’
† 2. A kind of starfish with numerous rays: cf. sun-starfish s.v. SUN sb. 13 b. Obs.
1681. Grew, Musæum, I. V. iv. 124. A Star-Fish with Twelve Rays; by some called Sun-Fish.
Hence Sunfish v. (U.S. colloq.), intr. to act like a sun-fish, spec. of a ‘bucking’ horse (see quot.); Sunfishery, the occupation of fishing for sun-fish.
1848. Brabazon, Fisheries Irel., v. 51. The Sun Fishery is not confined to the Sun Fish bank of Clew Bay.
1888. Roosevelt, in Century Mag., April, 854/2. He may buck steadily in one place, or ‘sunfish,’—that is, bring first one shoulder down almost to the ground and then the other.
