Myctophidae

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A family of small, deep-sea fishes that carry light-producing organs along their bodies, commonly known as lanternfishes
2. The scientific family of small bioluminescent marine fish that live at great depths and migrate vertically through the ocean each night
3. Lanternfishes, a large group of small mesopelagic fish distinguished by rows of photophores that glow in the dark ocean waters

Etymology: Myctophidae is the scientific name of the family of small deep-sea fish known as lanternfish, and its origin lies in a Greek word for a nose-like shape rather than in anything to do with light. The family name is built on the genus "Myctophum", coined by the German naturalist Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1810. Rafinesque drew on the Greek "myktēr", meaning "nose" or "snout", combined with "ophis", "snake" or "serpent", to form a name that refers to the nose-like or snout-like projections on the heads of the fish. The family ending "-idae" is the standard zoological suffix for a family, taken from the genus name, and was added later as the classification system became formalised. The name is therefore a technical coinage from the nineteenth century, not a term from ancient Greek usage. Ancient writers would not have recognised the combination, though each of its parts was familiar to them in other senses. The family's better-known feature, the light-producing organs along its body, gave the fish their common name, but that trait plays no part in the scientific name.