tangfish
nounEtymology tang (“seaweed”) + fish
- The coasts of Shetland swarm with the smaller seals, or Tangfish, so named from being supposed to live among the Tang, or larger fuci that grow near the shore.1813-1831, Brewster, David (1781-1868), Second American Edition of the New Edinburgh Encyclopædia, New York: Samuel Whiting and John L. Tiffany [and others], page 128:
- a noted retreat of seals or selkies, or tangfish, as they are vernacularly called in Zetland1863, Sidney Hall, Guide to the Highlands and Western Islands of Scotland Including Orkney and Shetland, page 791:
1 more example
- On the rugged shores of Orkney there are two kinds of seal – the common seal or 'tangfish' (seaweed fish) of the Shetlands […] and the great grey seal2015, Victoria Dickenson, Seal, page 95: