or Barracoota
The name, under its original spelling of Barracuda, wascoined in the Spanish West Indies, and first applied there to alarge voracious fish, Sphyraena pecuda, family Sphyraenidae. In Australia and New Zealand it isapplied to a smaller edible fish, Thyrsites atun,Cuv. and Val., family Trichiuridae, called Snook (q.v.) at the Cape of Good Hope. It is found from the Cape ofGood Hope to New Zealand.
1845. `Voyage to Port Philip,' p. 40:
«We hook the barracuda fish.»
1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fishes of New South Wales,'p. 69:
« Sphyrenidae. The first family is the barracudas, orsea-pike.» [Footnote]: «This name is no doubt the same asBarracouta and is of Spanish origin. The application of it to Thyrsites atun in the Southern seas was founded on somefancied resemblance to the West Indian fish, which originallybore the name, though of course they are entirely different.»
(2) The word is used as a nickname for an inhabitant of Hobart;compare Cornstalk.