| Ambassis | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Ambassis miops | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Division: | Teleostei |
| Order: | Mugiliformes |
| Family: | Ambassidae |
| Genus: | Ambassis G. Cuvier, 1828 |
| Type species | |
| Centropomus ambassis Lacepède, 1802 | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Ambassis is a genus of ray-finned fish in the family Ambassidae, the Asiatic glassfishes. They are found widely in the Indo-Pacific region, with species in fresh, brackish and coastal marine waters.
This genus includes fish known commonly as glassies, perchlets, and common glassfishes. The genus name was derived from the specific epithet ambassis of "Aspro ambassis" Commerçon 1767-1771, which in turn derives from the vernacular name “l’ambasse”, later "l'ambache", used by Philibert Commerçon in his unpublished notes for a small, common fish at Île Bourbon (Réunion). Valenciennes (1867) reported that Commerçon used the term to mean “deux sous”, a 19th-century French euphemism for a cheap or worthless thing, referring to the fish’s abundance and low value. FishBase, However, implies it is from the Greek anabasis, meaning 'climbing up'.
See 
The dictionary definition of deux sous at Wiktionary.
