pufferfish

English

Wikispecies

An inflated pufferfish.

Etymology

From puffer +‎ fish.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

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Noun

pufferfish (countable and uncountable, plural pufferfish or pufferfishes)

1. Any species of fish of the family Tetraodontidae that have the ability to inflate themselves to a globe several times their normal size by swallowing water or air when threatened; puffer, blowfish, swellfish, balloonfish, globefish.
   • 1993 December 28, James Younger, “Fishy Short Cut To Mapping Human Genome”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     Recently, however, a scientist in Britain proposed a short cut that would use the genome of the fugu, a pufferfish known as a dangerous delicacy among Japanese sushi eaters, to speed the search for human genes.

2. (uncountable) The meat of these fish, a delicacy popular in Japan served raw as sushi that may, if improperly prepared, contain deadly levels of neurotoxins; (Japanese) fugu.

Synonyms

• (fish): balloonfish, blowfish, globefish, puffer, swellfish
• (dish): fugu

Translations

blowfish — see blowfish

a delicacy popular in Japan

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 河豚 (zh) (hétún)

• Danish: kuglefisk
• Dutch: kogelvis (nl) m
• Finnish: pallokala (fi), siilikala, fugu (fi)
• German: Kugelfisch (de) m
• Italian: pesce palla m
• Japanese: フグ (ja) (fugu), 河豚 (ja) (fugu), 鰒 (ja) (fugu)
• Maori: kōpūtōtara
• Navajo: niicháadii
• Polish: najeżka f
• Portuguese: fugu m
• Russian: фу́гу (ru) n (fúgu)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked‌: "Translations to be categorized"

• Hokkien: ^{(please verify)} chhì-kui
• Lithuanian: ^{(please verify)} keturdantės ežiažuvės