bowfin

American  

[boh-fin] / ˈboʊˌfɪn /

noun

1. a carnivorous ganoid fish, Amia calva, found in sluggish fresh waters of eastern North America.

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bowfin British  

/ ˈbəʊˌfɪn /

noun

1. a primitive North American freshwater bony fish, Amia calva , with an elongated body and a very long dorsal fin: family Amiidae

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Etymology

Origin of bowfin

An Americanism dating back to 1835–45; bow ² + fin ¹

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bowfin

The researchers also sequenced the bichir, an elongated, air-breathing, ray-finned fish that lives in the shallows of tropical African rivers, as well as the American paddlefish, the bowfin, and the alligator gar.

From Science Magazine ● Feb. 10, 2021

Dmitry Tkachenko, a native of Odessa, Ukraine, who now works as a machinery exporter in Newton, Mass., served bowfin caviar at a dinner party not too long ago.

From New York Times ● Jun. 9, 2012

Mr. Taksir said he was “skeptical in the beginning,” when he discovered bowfin caviar at a seafood show in Boston three years ago.

From New York Times ● Jun. 9, 2012

Mr. Taksir, the exporter, made his first trip to the bayou at harvest time last year and watched the founder of the Louisiana Caviar Company, John Burke, fish for bowfin in a two-man skiff.

From New York Times ● Jun. 9, 2012

A genus of freshÐwater ganoid fishes, exclusively confined to North America; called bowfin in Lake Champlain, dogfish in Lake Erie, and mudfish in South Carolina, etc.

From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary by Noah Webster

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