[app. f. JEW sb. + FISH: as to origin of name, see quot. 1697.] A name given to various fishes, chiefly of the family Serranidæ.
Among these are Promicrops guasa, Epinephelus nigritus, Megalops atlanticus, and Paralichthys dentatus, of the Atlantic coast of U.S.; Stereolepis gigas of the Californian coast; Polyprion americanus or P. couchi of Madeira; and Sciæna antarctica and Glaucosoma hebraicum of Australia. (Cent. Dict. and Morris, Austral Eng.)
1697. Dampier, Voy. (1729), I. 249. The Jew-fish is a very good Fish, and I judge so called by the English, because it hath Scales and Fins, therefore a clean Fish, according to the Levitical Law.
1764. Grainger, Sugar-Cane, III. 608. Can Europe’s seas … Aught so delicious as the Jew-fish show?
1775. Romans, Florida, App. 20. Jew-fish are very abundant both within and without the river.
1847. Leichhardt, Jrnl. Austral., ii. 40. The water holes abounded with jew-fish and eels.
1883. E. M. Ramsay, Food Fishes N. S. Wales, 16 (Fish. Exh. Publ.). The most important of this family is the Jew-fish (Sciæna antarctica), which attains to a large size, exceeding 5 feet in length.
1890. Boston (Mass.) Jrnl., 13 April, 2/3. The largest jewfish ever caught on the Gulf coast … weighed 348 pounds, was 6 feet in length and 8 feet in circumference just back of the gills.
