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prettygoodwordgurnard (GUR-nerd) - n., any marine fish of the family Triglidae, having an armored head and fingerlike pectoral fins for crawling on the sea bottom, also known as sea robins, or any marine fish of the possibly related family Dactylopteridae, with even larger pectoral fins, also known as flying gurnards.
The latter are unrelated to flying fish, and despite the large fins, cannot actually fly. Plural is gurnard if talking about a collective of one species, gurnards if talking about multiple species. In use since at least the early 14th century, from Anglo-Norman gurenard, irregular from Old French grognier, to grunt, from Latin grunnīre, of imitative origin -- because when caught, the sea-robin gurnards make grunting noises like a frog.
---L.
The latter are unrelated to flying fish, and despite the large fins, cannot actually fly. Plural is gurnard if talking about a collective of one species, gurnards if talking about multiple species. In use since at least the early 14th century, from Anglo-Norman gurenard, irregular from Old French grognier, to grunt, from Latin grunnīre, of imitative origin -- because when caught, the sea-robin gurnards make grunting noises like a frog.
---L.
