Icosteus

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A long, slender deep-sea fish found in the North Pacific, the only member of its family, known for its elongated body and fins
2. An unusual, ribbon-like marine fish that lives in cold northern Pacific waters at great depths and belongs to a family of its own
3. A rare deep-water fish of the North Pacific with a lean, eel-like body, notable as the sole species in its taxonomic family

Etymology: Icosteus is a deep-sea fish with a long, eel-like body and a single family of its own, named in 1877 by the American zoologist Theodore Gill. The name is a coinage from Greek roots rather than a word that people spoke for centuries. Its first element is the Greek "ischys" meaning strong, which surfaces in modern scientific names, while the second part, "osteon," means bone. Gill built the name to describe the fish's skeleton, and the Greek roots pick out a bony structure that is characteristic of the group. The word belongs to the family of technical names created by naturalists in the 19th century, when zoologists drew on classical Greek and Latin to label newly catalogued animals. Such names are rarely used outside specialist work, so their meaning is best read from their parts. A reader who knows the Greek elements can work out the sense without any further background, and that transparency is typical of the scientific vocabulary of the period.