DCHP-3

penguin

[ ? < Breton " white head " (cf. Welsh pen head, headland + gwyn white), in reference to an island; see 1578 quote]
Obs.
DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.

1n.

the now-extinct great auk, Alca impennis, once found in vast numbers in Newfoundland coastal islands.

Quotations

1578
[In about two months sailing they fell in with Cape Breton--from thence they sail'd N.E. to Penguin Island which is very full of Rockes and stones and great Birds white and gray colour as big as Geese.]
1620
The Penguines are as bigge as Geese, and flye not, for they haue but a little short wing, and they multiply so infinitly, vpon a certaine flat Iland, that men driue them from thence vopn a boord, into their boates by hundreds at a time.
1819
They were known by the name of penguins, according to some writers from the Welsh, in which language the word signifies white-head, the penguin having a remarkable white spot on one side of its otherwise black head.
1958
"Penguins," as our great auks were called, were chased to extermination.
2n.

the common cormorant.

Quotations

1959
Common Cormorant . . . penguin. (This term, applied to the Great Auk, has, since the extermination of that bird, been given to a variety of the larger sea fowl. Nfld.)
3n.

See: Penguin

Quotations