snakehead

English

Etymology

From snake +‎ head.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

snakehead (plural snakeheads)

1. (zoology) A family of perciform fish native to Africa and Asia, Channidae.
   • 2015, Eka Kurniawan, translated by Labodalih Sembiring, Man Tiger, Verso, page 1:

     Through this plantation ran a creek full of snakeheads and eels, its overflow swelling the swamp around it.

2. (slang) A Chinese smuggler, especially one who smuggles people
   • 2008, Frozen River, 00:33:10:

     Why would they want to run? -- To get away from the snakeheads. -- What's that? -- The snakeheads pay to get them here and then they gotta work off what they owe.

3. (US, slang, derogatory, ethnic slur) A black person.
4. A showy perennial plant, Chelone glabra, found in North American marshlands; the turtlehead
5. (US, rail transport) A loose, bent-up end of one of the strap rails, or flat rails, formerly used on American railroads.
6. The guinea-hen flower, Fritillaria meleagris.

Derived terms

• giant snakehead
• northern snakehead

 

Translations

fish

• Assamese: শ’ল (xöl) (large), গৰৈ (goroi) (small)
• Burmese: ငါးရံ့ (my) (nga:ram.)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 鱧／鳢 (zh) (lǐ)

• Eastern Cham: ꨌꨰꨆꨵꩀ (chaklaik), ꨁꨆꩆ ꨌꨰꨆꨵꩀ (ikan chaklaik)
• Finnish: käärmeenpää (fi)
• French: ophicéphale (fr)
• German: Schlangenkopffisch m
• Indonesian: gabus (id), haruan (id)
• Japanese: ライギョ (raigyo), 雷魚 (らいぎょ, raigyo)
• Malay: haruan (ms)
• Russian: змееголо́вая ры́ба f (zmejegolóvaja rýba), змееголов (ru) (zmejegolov)
• Thai: ปลาช่อน (th)
• Vietnamese: cá chuối, cá đô, cá lóc, cá sộp, cá tràu (vi), cá xộp, cá quả

smuggler

• French: passeur (fr)

Further reading

• snakehead on Wikipedia.Wikipedia