sculpin n also scolping, scopin*, scopy*, scully*, scummy, scumpy*, etc. OED ~ (1672); 1672 JOSSELYN 30 Sculpin; DAE (1761-). A scavenger fish (Myoxocephalus octodecemspinosus; M. scorpius); PIG-FISH, PLUG-EYE; also attrib.
1767 tr Cranz' Greenland i, 95 The Ulkes, scorpius marinus, which we call Toadfish, or in Newfoundland Scolping. [OED] [1770] 1792 CARTWRIGHT i, 45 She sometimes indulged the child with the tail of a raw sculpin to suck. 1792 PULLING MS Aug In the [Beothuk] wigwam were some salmon and sculpin lately caught with some English fishing gear... The sculpin were split like codfish. [cl830] 1890 GOSSE 114 The large, richly coloured sculpen (Cottus) so common in the clear water round the wharves of Carbonear. 1842 JUKES i, 192 ... three or four heavy clumsy-looking fish, called in Newfoundland 'sculpins,' with great heads and mouths, and many spines about them, and generally about a foot long. 1895 Christmas Review 12 If you squeeze the sculpion, you'll find his thorns. T 70/1-641 [Talk of] hunger—if they had a few o' those old sculpins I eat then. P 189-65 Scopy gob is a derisive term for anyone who talks too much. A scopy's mouth is large and gaping. It also means big mouth. M 71-107 Skullies are fairly big fish with a large head and an enormous mouth. They also have sharp fins. They also eat the entrails of fish at the head of wharfs and usually stay on the sea bottom. 1971 RLS 3, p. 4 Longhorn sculpin ... scummy.
