Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In entomology, a remarkable genus of hymenopterous insects, typical of the family Thynnidæ. The species are Australian.
  • noun In ichthyology, a genus of scombroid fishes, so named by Cuvier in 1817; the tunnies. Being preoccupied in entomology, the name was changed by Cuvier in 1829 to Orcynus. See cut under albacore.

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Examples

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  • "After having prescribed an application of oil to the count's leg, he expressed his sorrow for the misadventure, which he openly ascribed to want of taste and prudence in the painter, who did not think proper to return, and make an apology in person; and protested that there was nothing in the fowls which could give offence to a sensible nose, the stuffing being a mixture of pepper, lovage, and assafoetida, and the sauce consisting of wine and herring-pickle, which he had used instead of the celebrated garum of the Romans; that famous pickle having been prepared sometimes of the scombri, which were a sort of tunny-fish, and sometimes of the silurus, or shad-fish: nay, he observed that there was a third kind, called garum haemation, made of the guts, gills, and blood of the thynnus."

    — Smollett, Peregrine Pickle

    March 1, 2022