catfish

English

A walking catfish

A talking catfish

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Etymology 1

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

Noun

catfish (countable and uncountable, plural catfish or catfishes)

1. Any fish of the order Siluriformes, mainly found in fresh water, lacking scales, and having barbels like whiskers around the mouth.

   Synonyms: (Africa) catlet, sheat, sheatfish, river chicken

2. The meat of such a fish, popular in the Southern U.S. and Central Europe.

Derived terms

• airbreathing catfish
• banjo catfish
• blue catfish
• cat
• channel catfish
• cuckoo catfish
• electric catfish
• flathead catfish
• ghost catfish
• holy catfish
• leopard catfish
• mudcat
• North American freshwater catfish
• river chicken
• shark catfish
• striped catfish
• suffering catfish
• talking catfish
• thorny catfish
• three line catfish
• walking catfish
• wels catfish
• whale catfish
• widemouth blindcat

 

Translations

type of fish — see also sheatfish

• Abkhaz: аԥа́шәԥсыӡ (apáŝʷpsədz)
• Arabic: سَلُّور‎ m (sallūr)

  Egyptian Arabic: قرموط‎ m (ʕɑrmūṭ)

  Gulf Arabic: كاتفش‎ m (kātfiš)

• Aramaic:

  Syriac: ܣܱܠܽܘܪܴܐ‎ m (sallūrā, səlōrā)

• Armenian: լոքո (hy) (lokʿo)
• Asturian: siluru (ast) m
• Azerbaijani: naqqa, naxa
• Bashkir: йәйен (yäyen)
• Basque: katuarrain (eu)
• Belarusian: сом m (som)
• Bengali: মাগুর (magur)
• Bikol Central: tabangungo (bcl)
• Bulgarian: сом m (som)
• Burmese: ငါးခူ (my) (nga:hku)
• Catalan: silur m
• Chakma: 𑄟𑄉𑄪𑄢𑄴 (māgur)
• Cherokee: ᏧᎵᏍᏓᎾᎵ (tsulisdanali)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 塘蝨／塘虱 (tong⁴ sat¹)

  Mandarin: 鯰魚／鲶鱼 (zh) (niányú), 鮎形目／鲇形目 (niánxíngmù)

  Min Nan: 鯰魚／鲶鱼 (zh-min-nan) (liâm-hî)

• Coptic: ϫⲉⲗϥⲁⲩ m (čelfau)
• Czech: sumec (cs) m
• Danish: malle c
• Dutch: meerval (nl) m
• Finnish: monni (fi), monnikala (fi)
• French: poisson-chat (fr) m, silure (fr) m
• Galician: siluro m
• Georgian: ლოქო (loko)
• German: Wels (de) m, Katzenwels m
• Greek:

  Ancient: γλάνις m (glánis), σίλουρος m (sílouros)

  Modern: γατόψαρο (el) n (gatópsaro)

• Hebrew: שְׂפַמְנוּן‎ (he) m (sfamnún)
• Hungarian: harcsa (hu)
• Ido: siluro (io)
• Indonesian: lele (id)
• Irish: cat mara (ga) m
• Isthmus Zapotec: guluxu
• Italian: pesce gatto m
• Japanese: ナマズ (ja) (namazu), 鯰 (ja) (なまず, namazu)
• Karaim: yayın
• Kazakh: жайын (jaiyn)
• Khmer: ត្រីឆ្លាំង (trəyclĕəng)
• Korean: 메기 (ko) (megi)
• Kyrgyz: жайын (ky) (jayın)
• Lao: ປາໜັງ (pā nang)
• Latin: silūrus m
• Latvian: sams m
• Lithuanian: šamas m
• Macedonian: сом m (som)
• Malay: keli
• Mingrelian: ლოქო (loko), ღლამი (ɣlami)
• Navajo: dághaałóóʼ
• Ngarrindjeri: pummerrie
• Nogai: яйын (yayın)
• Northern Altai: чайы́н (čayḯn) (rare)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: malle m

• Nupe: ezhègi
• Ossetian: локо (loko)
• Persian: سلور‎ (selur), گربه‌ماهی‎ (gorbe-mâhi)
• Polish: sum (pl) m
• Portuguese: peixe-gato, bagre (pt) m
• Romanian: somn (ro) m, silur (ro) m
• Russian: сом (ru) m (som)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: со̏м m

  Roman: sȍm (sh) m

• Slovak: sumec (sk) m
• Slovene: som (sl) m
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: som m

• Southern Altai: јайын (ǰayïn), сом (som)
• Spanish: (Chile) bagre (es) m, siluro m, barbo (es) m, pez gato m
• Svan: ლოქო (loko)
• Swahili: kambare (sw)
• Swedish: mal (sv) c
• Tagalog: hito
• Tatar: җәен (tt) (cäyen)
• Thai: ปลาดุก (th) (bplaa-dùk)
• Tok Pisin: mausgras
• Turkish: yayın (tr)
• Turkmen: lakga
• Ukrainian: сом m (som)
• Vietnamese: cá trê (vi)
• Welsh: cathbysgod m pl
• Yoruba: ẹja àrọ̀

Verb

catfish (third-person singular simple present catfishes, present participle catfishing, simple past and past participle catfished)

1. To fish for catfish.

   I only use this rod for catfishing.

Derived terms

• catfisher

See also

• catshark
• noodling

Etymology 2

From the 2010 documentary Catfish, supposedly inspired by the practice of fishermen keeping cod active by storing them with catfish (see sense 1) which nip at their tails.

Noun

catfish (plural catfishes)

1. (Internet) Someone who creates a fake profile on a social media platform in order to deceive people.

   Synonym: catfisher

2. (Internet) Such a fake profile.

Translations

person operating fake profile

• Swedish: catfish c

fake profile

• Swedish: sockpuppet c

Verb

catfish (third-person singular simple present catfishes, present participle catfishing, simple past and past participle catfished)

1. (Internet, slang, transitive) To create and operate a fake online profile to deceive (someone).
   • 2013 January 17, Mary Pilon, “In Te’o Story, Deception Ripped From the Screen”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     Getting catfished is when someone falls for a person online who is not necessarily real. It can involve pictures, phone calls, social media profiles, text messages, e-mails and even phony friends or family members.

   • 2014 January 16, 12:17 from the start, in Cooperative Polygraphy (Community), season 5, episode 4 (TV), spoken by Troy (Donald Glover), via NBC:

     [to Abed] You made a profile for a fake dude and lured her into an online relationship. [to Annie] He's catfishing you.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:catfish.

Derived terms

• blackfish
• catfisher
• maskfish
• wokefish

Translations

operate fake profile

• Hungarian: másnak adja ki magát az interneten, online megtéveszt/félrevezet
• Swedish: catfishing

Further reading

• catfish on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• catfishing on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• factish