halibut
noun/ˈhæ.lɪ.bət/ · /ˈhɒ.lɪ.bət/
Etymology From Middle English *halibutt, equivalent to holy + but (“flatfish”), since the fish was often eaten on holy days. Cognate with Dutch heilbot, German Heiligbutt, Heilbutt, Heilbutte, Danish helleflynder, Swedish helgeflundra, and Norwegian Nynorsk hellefisk.
1
A large flatfish of the genus Hippoglossus, which sometimes leaves the ocean floor and swims vertically.
- [...] she frowned a displeased frown and told me for heaven's sake to stop goggling like a dead halibut.1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter IV:
- Derived terms
- Atlantic halibut, bastard halibut, California halibut, Greenland halibut, halibuter, haliver oil, Monterey halibut, Pacific halibut