[Etymology not ascertained. ? Cornish name.] A small species of shark, Galeus galeorhinus or G. canis, native to British seas, especially off the coast of Cornwall. Called also dog-fish, penny-dog, miller’s-dog.
1686. Ray, Willughby’s Hist. Pisc., I. xii. 22. Canis galeus Rondeletii & aliorum. Cornubiensibus, ni fallor, A Tope dicitur.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1862), II. II. i. 269. The Dog Fish, the Zygæna, the Tope, the Cat Fish.
1846. Owen, Compar. Anat. Vertebr., iii. 56. In the Tope … may be seen the highest stage of vertebral assification in the Chondropterygian Fishes.
1909. Daily Chron., 9 Oct., 7/3. Another kind of shark … is the tope, an ugly and rapacious brute, attaining an average length of about six feet.
b. The Australasian species, Galeus australis.
1898. Morris, Austral English, Tope, an Australasian Shark, Galeus australis, Macl…. Called also School Shark.
