Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SKATE, n.² [Sax. sceadda; L. squatus; squatina; W. câth vor, or morgath, that is, seacat. This shows that skate is formed on cat. The primary sense of cat, I do not know; but in W. câth eithen, is a hare; that is, furze or gorse-cat.]

A fish of the ray kind, [Raia Batis;] called the variegated ray-fish. It is a flat fish, large and thin, some of them weighing nearly two hundred pounds. – Dict. Nat. Hist.