catfish

English

Wikipedia

A walking catfish

A talking catfish

Etymology 1

From cat +‎ fish. Likely so named for its prominent barbels like a cat's whiskers.

Noun

catfish (plural catfish or catfishes)

1. Any fish of the order Siluriformes, that are mainly found in freshwater, are without scales, and have barbels like whiskers around the mouth.

Synonyms

• sheat, sheatfish

Derived terms

• airbreathing catfish
• channel catfish
• whale catfish

Translations

type of fish

• Armenian: լոքո (hy) (lok'o)
• Basque: katuarrain (eu)
• Belarusian: сом (be) (som) m
• Bulgarian: сом (bg) (som) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 鯰魚 (cmn), 鯰魚 (cmn) (niányú), 鮎形目 (cmn) (niánxíngmù)

• Czech: sumec (cs) m
• Danish: malle (da) c
• Dutch: meerval (nl) m
• Finnish: monni (fi), monnikala (fi)
• French: poisson-chat (fr) m, silure (fr) m
• German: Wels (de) m
• Greek: γατόψαρο (el) (gatópsaro) n
• Hungarian: harcsa (hu)
• Isthmus Zapotec: guluxu
• Italian: pesce gatto (it) m
• Japanese: ナマズ (ja) (namazu), 鯰 (ja) (なまず, namazu)
• Korean: 메기 (ko) (megi)
• Latvian: sams (lv) m

• Lithuanian: šamas (lt) m
• Macedonian: сом (mk) (som) m
• Navajo: dághaałóóʼ
• Ngarrindjeri: pummerrie
• Norwegian: malle (no) m
• Polish: sum (pl) m
• Portuguese: peixe-gato, bagre m
• Romanian: somn (ro) m, silur (ro) m
• Russian: сом (ru) (som) m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: сом (sh) m

  Roman: som (sh) m

• Slovak: sumec (sk) m
• Slovene: som (sl) m
• Spanish: (Chile) bagre (es) m, siluro (es) m, barbo (es) m, pez gato (es) m
• Swahili: kabare (sw)
• Tok Pisin: mausgras (tpi)
• Ukrainian: сом (uk) (som) m
• Vietnamese: cá trê (vi)

Etymology 2

Derived from the documentary film about the subject, "catfish", which coined the term

Noun

catfish (plural catfishes)

1. (Internet, psychology, slang) a person who sets up or runs a false puppet social networking identity profile for fraudulent or deceptive purposes

Related terms

• catfishing (the act of setting up and running such a puppet account )