Definitions

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) Same as arapaima.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A fish, the arapaima.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Portuguese pirarucú, from Tupí pirá-rucú : pirá, fish + urucú, red.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the native South American name.

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Examples

  • There was also caught in this lake a large species of fish called pirarucu, which, strangely enough, found it possible to exist in spite of alligators.

    Martin Rattler 1859

  • According to Keyla, demand for the arapaima (Arapaima gigas), which is also known as pirarucu, or paiche has increased even further after it was in danger of extinction, leading to the establishment, by the Brazilian Environment and Renewable Natural Resource Institute

    Home Isabela Barros 2010

  • According to Keyla, demand for the arapaima (Arapaima gigas), which is also known as pirarucu, or paiche has increased even further after it was in danger of extinction, leading to the establishment, by the Brazilian Environment and Renewable Natural Resource Institute

    Home Isabela Barros 2010

  • Alex Atala opened this casual restaurant in 2009, 10 years after the huge success of his haute cuisine mecca D.O.M. Here, Mr. Atala pays homage to "grandmother food," he said, with Brazilian basics like shrimp bobó, a creamy stew of manioc and shrimp; red rice with dried meat, curd cheese and goat shoulder; and grilled pirarucu, an Amazonian fish.

    Feasts of São Paulo Katy McLaughlin 2012

  • They include the giant pirarucu fish Arapaima gigas, pacu, Piaractus brachypomus, Metynnis and Mylossoma species, tambaqui, Colossoma macropomum, sardinha Triportheus angulatus which are all hunted, and the smaller carnivorous piranha Serrasalmus spp.

    Central Amazonian Conservation Complex, Brazil 2008

  • The economy is based on manioc cultivation and small farms, fishing for pirarucu and tambaqui, forest products and some hunting.

    Central Amazonian Conservation Complex, Brazil 2008

  • Chinese Formula Maker Hid Toxic Danger for Weeks Antonio Menezes/Reuters BIG CATCH: A port worker carried a pirarucu, the largest freshwater fish in South America, after 66 of them were confiscated Thursday from poachers who were transporting them to a Manaus, Brazil, market.

    Today's Photos: Sept. 18 2008

  • For two weeks the party lived on bread, three cans of tuna, two cans of sausages, two kilos of rice and sugar, a kilo of butter, a pound of onions, one pineapple, two papayas, and a kilo of dried pirarucu fish.

    One River Wade Davis 1996

  • For two weeks the party lived on bread, three cans of tuna, two cans of sausages, two kilos of rice and sugar, a kilo of butter, a pound of onions, one pineapple, two papayas, and a kilo of dried pirarucu fish.

    One River Wade Davis 1996

  • When the arrow struck this particular _pirarucu_, at close range, he made straight for the shore, hauling the canoe and its contents after him at considerable speed.

    In the Amazon Jungle Adventures in Remote Parts of the Upper Amazon River, Including a Sojourn Among Cannibal Indians Algot Lange

Comments

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  • It's a fish.

    January 2, 2012