sea hog

plural sea hogs · alternative sea-hog · alternative seahog

1. archaicA porpoise or dolphin.

   "[O]ne would have judged from its motley hues, exhibiting the consistence and appearance of variegated fancy soap, that it was the flesh of the porpoise or sea-hog, and had been an inhabitant of the ocean rather than of the stye."

   1890, Willis J. Abbot, chapter 24, in The Naval History of the United States, volume 1

   1 more example

   The story of the transformation of the mariners is supposed by Bochart to have been founded on the adventure of certain merchants from the coast of Etruria, whose vessel had the figure of a dolphin at the prow, or rather of the fish called ‘tursio,’ probably the porpoise, or sea-hog.

   1899, Henry Thomas Riley (translator), Ovid (author), The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Book 3, Fable 8 (translator's explanation)

   Synonyms: sea pig, seaswine, mereswine