gray

From Middle English gray, from Old English grǣġ, from Proto-West Germanic *grāu, from Proto-Germanic *grēwaz, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰreh₁- (“to green, to grow”).
See also Dutch grauw, German grau, Old Norse grár); also Latin rāvus (“grey”), Old Church Slavonic зьрѭ (zĭrjǫ, “to see, to glance”), Russian зреть (zretʹ, “to watch, to look at”) (archaic), Lithuanian žeriù (“to shine”).

cog

Log-shaped barnacles become embedded in the hide of the gray.

1971 Mar, National Geographic, page 411:

Eschrichtius robustus
Eschrichtius robustus#Translingual


blower

From Middle English blowere, blower, from Old English blāwere; equivalent to blow + -er.

Any device that blows; often, especially, a furnace component or a supercharger.

A ducted fan, usually part of a heating, ventilation, and/or air conditioning system.


sei

From sei whale, from Norwegian seihval, seikval, from sei (“pollock”) + hval (“whale”). Doublet of saithe.

Seis also feed by engulfing small schooling fish.

2005, Wayne Ledwell, Whales and Dolphins of Newfoundland and Labrador:


melon

en-noun

melon (countable and uncountable, plural melons)

→ Japanese: メロン

→ Korean: 멜론 (mellon)

→ Welsh: melon

From Middle English meloun, melon, from Old French melon, from Late Latin melonem, from Latin melopeponem, from Ancient Greek μηλοπέπων (mēlopépōn), from μῆλον (mêlon, “apple”) + πέπων (pépōn, “ripe”).

(countable, Australia, New Zealand, derogatory) A member of the Green Party, or similar environmental group.


killer

killer (countable and uncountable, plural killers)

→ German: Killer

→ Italian: killer

→ Japanese: キラー (kirā)

→ Russian: ки́ллер (kíller)

From Middle English killer, kyller. By surface analysis, kill + -er.

Digital streaming platforms are CD killers.

(figuratively) Something that is so far ahead of its competition that it effectively kills off that competition.


spout

From Middle English spouten, from Middle Dutch spoiten, spouten (> Dutch spuiten (“to spout”)), from Old Dutch *spūten, *spīuten, *spīwetten, from Proto-West Germanic *spīwattjan, from Proto-Germanic *spīwatjaną. Compare Swedish spruta (“squirt, syringe”). See also spit, spew.

(Australia) A hollow stump formed when a tree branch breaks off.


whale

From Middle English whale, from Old English hwæl (“whale”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwal, from Proto-Germanic *hwalaz (“whale”) (compare German Wal, Swedish val, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål hval, Norwegian Nynorsk kval; compare also Dutch walvis, West Frisian walfisk, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kʷálos (“sheatfish”) (compare German Wels, Latin squalus (“big sea fish”), Old Prussian kalis, Ancient Greek ἄσπαλος (áspalos), Avestan 𐬐𐬀𐬭𐬀 (kara, “kind of fish”)).

The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania.[…]It was used to make kerosene, the main fuel for artificial lighting after overfishing led to a shortage of whale blubber.

2013 August 3, “Yesterday’s fuel”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:


tumbler

A beverage cup, typically made of stainless steel, that is broad at the top and narrow at the bottom commonly used in India.


orc

From Middle French orque, Italian orca, and their source, Latin orca (“type of whale”). Doublet of orca.

(archaic) Any of several large, ferocious sea creatures, now especially the killer whale.


blue whale

But there are a rabble of uncertain, fugitive half-fabulous whales, which as an American whaleman, I know by reputation, but not personally....the Iceberg whale; the Quog Whale; the Blue Whale. But I omit them as altogether obsolete and can hardly help suspecting them for mere sounds full of leviathanism, but signifying nothing.

1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, page 131:

Balaenoptera musculus
Balaenoptera musculus#Translingual

A whale (Balaenoptera musculus), blue in color and the largest known living animal.


porpoise

From Middle English porpeys, purpeys, borrowed from Anglo-Norman porpeis, purpeis, Old French pourpois, porpois, pourpais, porpeis (“porpoise”), from Vulgar Latin *porcopiscis (“porpoise”, literally “pig-fish”), from Latin porcus (“pig”) + piscis (“fish”). Compare (in transposed order) obsolete Italian pesce porco and Portuguese peixe porco; also Latin porcus marinus (“sea hog”), akin in formation to German Meerschwein, English mereswine. More at mereswine.

der

They captured 25 porpoises and set them free back into the Yangtze after raising them for a month in Puqi County, Hubei.

1991, Kaiya Zhou, Zhang Xingduan, translated by Luo Changyan, Baiji: The Yangtze River Dolphin and Other Endangered Animals of China, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 76:

A small cetacean of the family Phocoenidae, related to dolphins and whales.


dolphin

From Middle English delphyn, from Latin delphīnus, from Ancient Greek δελφίς (delphís), from δελφύς (delphús, “womb”); the modern form in -ol- is probably influenced by the pronunciation of Middle French dauphin. Compare Swedish delfin. Doublet of dauphin. Displaced native Old English mereswīn (literally “sea pig”).

ncog

A carnivorous aquatic mammal in one of several families of order Cetacea, famed for its intelligence and occasional willingness to approach humans.

Tursiops truncatus
Tursiops truncatus#Translingual

Tursiops truncatus, (Atlantic bottlenose dolphin) the most well-known species.

(nautical) A mooring post on a wharf or beach.

(US, slang) A person who buys shares on the primary market only to resell them immediately at a high profit.


gam

Uncertain but surely formed within English; etymons may include game or gammon.

But what is a Gam? You might wear out your index-finger running up and down the columns of dictionaries, and never find the word, Dr. Johnson never attained to that erudition; Noah Webster’s ark does not hold it. Nevertheless, this same expressive word has now for many years been in constant use among some fifteen thousand true born Yankees. Certainly, it needs a definition, and should be incorporated into the Lexicon. With that view, let me learnedly define it. Gam. NOUN—A social meeting of two (or more) Whaleships, generally on a cruising-ground; when, after exchanging hails, they exchange visits by boats’ crews, the two captains remaining, for the time, on board of one ship, and the two chief mates on the other.

1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 53”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

There is still that yearning for news from Nantucket that there was when the whale-ships stopped for a gam out in the far-distant Pacific Ocean […]

1916, Harry B. Turner, “Nantucket's Early Telegraph Service”, in Proceedings of the Nantucket Historical Association, page 50:

If time was available, whaling prospects poor, and the weather gentle, a gam might last all day and include tea and dinner.

1997, Gillies Ross, Margaret Penny, This Distant and Unsurveyed Country, →ISBN, page 14:

Twice each year, the Russian Navy sent out such ships to provision Russian whalers in the Sea of Okhotsk. In sailing toward the supposed Russian ship, the Abigail’s captain, Ebenezer Nye, was hoping for a gam with the ship's officers […]

2007, Tom Chaffin, Sea of Gray: The Around-the-World Odyssey of the Confederate Raider Shenandoah, →ISBN, page 230:

(by extension) A social gathering of whalers (whaling ships).


killer whale

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-killer whale.wav

Calque or mistranslation of Spanish asesina-ballenas (“whale killer”), referring to their tendency to hunt whales.

bor

Of this whale, little is known to the Nantucketer, and nothing at all to the professed naturalist. From what I have seen of him at a distance, I should say that he was about the bigness of a grampus. He is very savage - a sort of Feegee fish. He sometimes takes the great Folio whales by the lip and hangs there like a leech until the mighty brute is worried to death. The killer is never hunted. I have never heard what sort of oil he has. Exception might be taken to the name of this whale, on the grounds of its indistinctness. For we are all killers on land and on sea; Bonaparts and sharks included.

1851 November 14, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

A sea mammal related to dolphins and porpoises (Orcinus orca).


narwhal

From Dutch narwal or Danish/Norwegian Bokmål narhval, from Old Norse náhvalr, from nár (“corpse”) + hvalr (“whale”). Compare Icelandic náhvalur.

Moreover, both narwhals and bowheads can occur in late summer in southern Prince Regent Inlet (coming from Lancaster Sound) and may reach Fury and Hecla Strait and northern Foxe Basin.

1986, D. E. Sergeant, “Chapter 16: Sea Mammals”, in I. P. Martini, editor, Canadian Inland Seas, page 337:

Often, in the morning, narwhals played around the boat and reminded me of the dolphins, so far away in the North Atlantic. But these narwhals were not like the Atlantic sea-dogs; they had little of their flashing vibrancy; these Turkish narwhals were much more relaxed, and rolled over lazily, with a sigh, as if they were going to retire to a sofa and smoke a hookah.

1988, Tristan Jones, Somewheres East of Suez:

At over 2.5 m in length, the tusk of the male narwhal (Monodon monoceros) is one the most impressive instruments of male-male competition among mammals.

2000, Richard C. Connor, Andrew J. Read, Richard Wrangham, edited by Janet Mann, Cetacean Societies: Field Studies of Dolphins and Whales, 10: Male Reproductive Strategies and Social Bonds, page 247:

Monodon monoceros
Monodon monoceros#Translingual

Monodon monoceros, an Arctic cetacean that grows to about 20 feet (6 meters) long, the male having a single horn-like tusk, a twisted, pointed canine tooth that projects forward.


cetacean

en-adj

cetacean (comparative more cetacean, superlative most cetacean)

more cetacean (comparative)
most cetacean (superlative)

From translingual Cetacea, from Latin cētus (“whale”), + -an.

The poached blubber was definitely cetacean in origin, but the particular species could not be identified.

She was not as demure as she was in Roanoke; she seemed at the beginning rather like she felt more comfortable in the oceanic atmosphere harpooning her opponent. Indeed, at times, it seemed she was Ahab and the witherwin Allen was her Moby Dick; but while she sails her Pequod just as intently toward a singular goal, her alastor is much less clear and she bears no visible scars of a cetacean attacker.

2012, Hampton Roads Republican US Senate Debate Summary:

Pertaining to the zoologic order Cetacea, or associated with species falling under that taxonomic hierarchy.

The obese woman, ungainly on land, moved with a kind of cetacean grace in the water.

(by extension, sometimes figurative) Resembling or relating to large aquatic mammals.


cetacean

The tour promised spiritual experiences with humpback whales and other cetaceans, but all we saw were seagulls and a dead sea otter.

An animal belonging to the order Cetacea, including dolphins, porpoises, and whales.

morvil

an animal belonging to the order Cetacea


orca

Learned borrowing from Latin orca (“tun, cask; whale”), see there for more. Although the origin is obscure, the sometimes-cited association with orcus (“underworld”) is folk-etymology. Doublet of orc.

lbor

In the summer, when the weather is calm and beautiful, large flocks of orcæ can be seen approaching the shallow places near the shore, or between the numerous islands of the White Sea. Several fishermen associate for hunting orcæ, each one furnishing a boat, and a large seine made of cords of the thickness of a finger, the meshes being 10½ inches square.

1876, Alexander Schultz, “Account of the Fisheries and Seal-Hunting in the White Sea, the Arctic Ocean, and the Caspian Sea”, in United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries. Part III. Report of the Commissioner for 1873-4 and 1874-5., Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, page 55:

A sea mammal (Orcinus orca) related to dolphins and porpoises, commonly called the killer whale.


boto

Borrowed from Portuguese boto (“boto”), of uncertain origin.

But in a group where one boto puts on a display, there was much more tail-whacking, biting and other aggressive behavior among the males.

2008 April 1, Henry Fountain, “Carrying a Torch, or at Least Sprigs of Grass”, in New York Times:

Inia geoffrensis
Inia geoffrensis#Translingual

Inia geoffrensis, a species of freshwater dolphin endemic to the Amazon river system


streaker

A dolphin of species Stenella coeruleoalba.


baleen

en-noun

baleen (countable and uncountable, plural baleens)

From Middle English baleyne, from Old French baleine (“whale, whalebone”), from Latin balaena (“whale”), from Ancient Greek φάλαινα (phálaina, “whale”).

uder

“You have probably never seen anything like this before, Mr. Toler. It is baleen, or if you prefer it, whalebone, taken from the mouth of the bowhead whale. It is used by the whale to filter its food.”

1954, Alexander Alderson, chapter 5, in The Subtle Minotaur:

(physiology, uncountable) The keratinous material that makes up the plates in the mouth of the baleen whale, Mysticeti, which it uses to trap its food; formerly used in corsetry.


wholphin

The fertile hybrid produced by cross-breeding a bottlenose dolphin Tursiops truncatus (mother), and a false killer whale Pseudorca crassidens (father).


humpback whale

Megaptera novaeangliae
Megaptera novaeangliae#Translingual

A species of baleen whale (Megaptera novaeangliae).


sperm whale

Physeter catodon
Physeter catodon#Translingual

Physeter macrocephalus
Physeter macrocephalus#Translingual

A whale (Physeter catodon, syn. Physeter macrocephalus), the largest of the toothed whales.


minke whale

Balaenoptera acutorostrata
Balaenoptera acutorostrata#Translingual

Balaenoptera bonaerensis
Balaenoptera bonaerensis#Translingual

Either of two baleen whales, Balaenoptera acutorostrata and Balaenoptera bonaerensis, found in coastal waters.

ballenatu

Balaenoptera acutorostrata or Balaenoptera bonaerensis


spotter

contrasted with the Übungsleiter m meaning “trainer”

Stenella longirostris
Stenella longirostris#Translingual

Dolphins of the genus Stenella, and specifically Stenella attenuata distinguished from the streaker (Stenella coeruleoalba) and the spinner (Stenella longirostris).


cetaceous

Relating to whales or more generally to any marine mammal of the order Cetacea.


beluga

Borrowed from Russian белу́га (belúga), from бе́лый (bélyj, “white”).
In modern standard Russian, белу́га (belúga) denotes the fish Huso huso only, while белу́ха (belúxa) denotes the cetacean.

A fish, Huso huso, that is a source of caviar, which is found in the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.


whaling

en-noun

whaling (countable and uncountable, plural whalings)


puffer

From puff + -er.
The cellular automata definition is a clipping of puffer train.


humpback

[…] Tom’s more specific and kindly impressions gradually melted into the old background of suspicion and dislike toward him as a queer fellow, a humpback, and the son of a rogue.

1860, George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss, Book 2, Chapter 6:

[…] I stared up at the raw spots on his cheek and thought, there is no safety anywhere: a humpback, a cripple—they all have the trigger that sets love off.

1951, Graham Greene, The End of the Affair, Penguin, published 1975, Book 2, Chapter 7, p. 81:

(derogatory, now offensive) A person with a humpback; a person who suffers from kyphosis.


humpback

en-verb

humpback (third-person singular simple present humpbacks, present participle humpbacking, simple past and past participle humpbacked)

humpbacks (present singular third-person)
humpbacking (participle present)
humpbacked (participle past)
humpbacked (past)

The captain of the James Rodgers […] was an old hand at humpbacking […]

1895, Charles Nordhoff, chapter 10, in Whaling and Fishing, New York: Dodd, Mead, page 191:

[…] the Alice Knowles […] did her whaling in the south Atlantic, by turns humpbacking off the African coast and cruising around Tristan in season.

1953, Emma Mayhew Whiting, Henry Beetle Hough, chapter 16, in Whaling Wives, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, page 240:


rorqual

From Norwegian Nynorsk røyrkval, from Old Norse reyðarhvalr (“fin whale”).

Now then, the biggest whales, those rorqual whales that frequent the waterways of the Aleutian Islands, have never exceeded a length of 56 meters--if they reach even that.

2001 [1873], Frederick Paul Walter, transl., 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas, Wikisource / Project Gutenberg, translation of Vingt mille lieues sous les mers by Jules Verne:

Any whale of family Balaenopteridae, with longitudinal skin folds running from below the mouth to the navel, allowing the capacity of the mouth to expand greatly when feeding.


right whale

From right + whale, but the sense of right in the name is unknown. The commonly given etymology based on these whales being for various reasons the "right" whales to hunt (e.g. easy to hunt and docile) is questionable but highly plausible and therefore not necessarily a folk etymology, as Eric Jay Dolin writes in 2007 in his history of American whaling: The earliest references to the right whale offer no indication why it was called that, and some who have studied the issue point out that the word "right" in this context might just as likely be intended "to connote 'true' or 'proper,' meaning typical of the group." The scientific name of the whale's genus is Eubalaena, which means "good or true whales".

The previous night, they’d received a call from the federal Department of Oceans and Fisheries (DFO): a right whale was tangled up in crab trap lines near their location.

2018 June 20, Chelsea Murray, The Guardian:

Any of certain baleen whales of the family Balaenidae, in the genera Eubalaena (three species) and Balaena (one species, the bowhead whale, also called Greenland right whale).

balena franca

any of certain baleen whales of the family Balaenidae


sulfur-bottom whale

en-noun

sulfur-bottom whale (plural sulfur-bottom whales)


cachalot

From French cachalot, from Portuguese cachalote, from cachola (“big head”).

A flexible rib cage facilitates the collapse of the lungs of a diving cachalot (a synonym derived from an old French word for tooth), so reducing the nitrogen uptake which is responsible for decompression sickness in diving humans, while high levels of haemoglobin in the blood and myoglobin in the skeletal muscles carry the oxygen required to sustain long periods between breaths.

2011 September 22, Richard Shelton, “Sheep, pig, whale”, in Times Literary Supplement:


cetology

cetology (usually uncountable, plural cetologies)

The branch of zoology concerned with the order Cetacea, which includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises.


razorback

/ˈɹeɪzɚˌbæk/

/ˈɹeɪzəˌbæk/


slumgullion

slumgullion (countable and uncountable, plural slumgullions)

Uncertain, but said to derive from slime and Scots gullion (“swamp; cesspool”). Attested from the late nineteenth century in reference to a watery beverage (see quotation below). Compare Irish góilín (“a creek; a small inlet”).

“Say...if anybody cares, this vat of slumgullion is as ready as it will ever be.”

1981, Julian May, The Many-Colored Land:

A reddish muddy deposit in mining sluices.

There is another substance, and a very singular one, which turns up in the course of this business [of preparing sperm whale], but which I feel it to be very puzzling adequately to describe. It is called slobgollion[…] It is an ineffably oozy, stringy affair, most frequently found in the tubs of sperm, after a prolonged squeezing, and subsequent decanting.

1892, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, page 394:

The “slumgullion” and “lipperings” or “dreenings” of the blubber—consisting of a mixture of the blood which issues from the fat-lean and the salt water and oil which flows from the blubber while the men are handling it as they hoist it aboard ship, stow it away, and prepare it for the try-pots—though discarded in the palmy days of whaling, are now carefully husbanded and amalgamated.

1904, Charles H. Stevenson, “Aquatic products in arts and industries”, in Report of the Commissioner for Fish and Fisheries, page 198:

The slide received its name from a seafaring man who was reminded of slumgullion, the yellow residue from the blubber of a butchered whale.

1996, Lee Gregory, Colorado Scenic Guide: Southern Region, Slumgullion Earthflow, page 142:

slobgollion

A waste product or byproduct from processing whales or fish.


Moby-Dick

The elusive white whale hunted in this novel.


snuffer

The participant in a snuff film who kills another (the snuffee).


narwhale

Oh, the believing is hard to be doing, because that was so incredible! We met so many celebrities in midair! And the part with the narwhale was so illegal.

2006 July 3, Michael Chapman; Matthew Chapman, “Weclome Back”, in Homestar Runner, spoken by Strong Bad (Matthew Chapman):


finback

Balaenoptera physalus
Balaenoptera physalus#Translingual

A large baleen whale, Balaenoptera physalus, that has a ridge on its back; the fin whale.


whalebone

whalebone (countable and uncountable, plural whalebones)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-whalebone.wav

The horny material from the fringed plates of the upper jaw of baleen whales that are used to filter plankton; once used as stays in corsets

балена

horny material from fringed plates of upper jaw of baleen whale


baleen whale

Any of several large whales, of the clade Mysticeti, that have plates of whalebone (baleen) instead of teeth.


sei whale

Partial translation of Norwegian seihval, seikval, from sei (“pollock”) + hval/kval (“whale”).

Balaenoptera borealis
Balaenoptera borealis#Translingual

A whale of the rorqual family (Balaenoptera borealis).


fin whale

The fin whale is a fast swimmer (around 30km/h) and generally lives in small groups numbering around five.

2019, James Proctor, Faroe Islands, 5th edition, Bradt Travel Guides, page 7:

A whale of the rorqual family (Balaenoptera physalus).


grampus

From Middle English *grampas, grappays, grapas, graspeys, from Anglo-Norman grampais, Old French graspois, craspois (“whale, (salted) whale meat; blubber; seal”), from Medieval Latin craspicis (literally “fat fish”), from Latin crassus (“fat”) + piscis (“fish”).

der

Some time after this we saw some very large fish, which I afterwards found were called grampusses.

1789, Olaudah Equiano, chapter 3, in The Interesting Narrative, volume I:

The Governor will blow like an old grampus, I know he will,—well, we must stop till he gets his wind again.

1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 19, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

‘No. I only opened the door a foot and put my head in. The street lamps shine into that room. I could see him. He was all right. Sleeping like a great grampus. Poor, poor chap.’

1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 20, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

Blowing like a grampus from every orifice, I leaned on a passing wave which dumped me[.]

1980, Ian Chappell, Chappelli has the last laugh, page 39:

Grampus griseus
Grampus griseus#Translingual

Risso's dolphin, Grampus griseus, with a blunt nose.

giant whip scorpion (Mastigoproctus giganteus)


spermaceti

From Latin sperma (“sperm”) + Latin cētī (“of the whale”, genitive of cētus).

af

genitive of <i class="Latn mention" lang="la">cētus</i>

Moreover, as that of Heidelburgh was always replenished with the most excellent of the wines of the Rhenish valleys, so the tun of the whale contains by far the most precious of all his oily vintages; namely, the highly-prized spermaceti, in its absolutely pure, limpid, and odoriferous state.

1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 77, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

A wax obtained from the head of sperm whales and used to make cosmetics, etc.


vaquita

From Spanish vaquita (“little cow”), diminutive of vaca (“cow”).

THE world’s smallest porpoise may have a fighting chance. The vaquita might be saved from extinction by an agreement at a meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in Portoroz, Slovenia, last week.
Unique to the Gulf of California, the vaquita has seen its numbers collapse to 59 in 2015.

2015 November 5, “Whale of a deal”, in New Scientist, number 3098, page 6:

A critically endangered porpoise, the smallest of its kind, Phocoena sinus, endemic to the northern part of the Gulf of California, Mexico.


spotted dolphin

en-noun

spotted dolphin (plural spotted dolphins)

Atlantic spotted dolphin
Atlantic spotted dolphin

Any of two species of dolphins of the genus Stenella.

Atlantic spotted dolphin (Stenella frontalis)

pantropical spotted dolphin
pantropical spotted dolphin

pantropical spotted dolphin (Stenella attenuata)

Spotted dolphins perform ‘genital buzzing’, in which an adult directs a rapid stream of low-pitched clicks at the genital area of another, usually a calf.

2012, Caspar Henderson, The Book of Barely Imagined Beings, Granta Books, published 2013, page 59:


blackfish

blackfish (plural blackfishes or blackfish)

(chiefly Scotland) The Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar, especially a female after spawning.

Any of various dark-coloured fish of the Old World, especially the rudderfish (Centrolophus niger).

(Canada, US) Either of two dark-coloured fish of the west Atlantic, the tautog of New England (Tautoga onitis) and the black sea bass (Centropristis striata).

The creek was reputed to contain blackfish and Nathan […] arranged the extraordinary collection of American lures he had inherited from an uncle.

1985, Peter Carey, Illywhacker, Faber and Faber, published 2003, page 337:

(Australia, New Zealand) Any of various dark-coloured fishes of Australasia, especially the luderick, Girella tricuspidata, and a freshwater fish, Gadopsis marmoratus.


blackfish

en-verb

blackfish (third-person singular simple present blackfishes, present participle blackfishing, simple past and past participle blackfished)

blackfishes (present singular third-person)
blackfishing (participle present)
blackfished (participle past)
blackfished (past)

Blend of black + catfish (“(to create) a fake online profile”)

blend

Judging from not only various records of campus life but also the numerous Instagram accounts of women appearing as "black" personalities — a phenomenon known as "blackfishing" — many do not know better.

2019, Wil Haygood, “Why Won’t Blackface Go Away? It’s Part of America’s Troubled Cultural Legacy”, in The New York Times:

On Sept. 28, Tumblr user wickedghastly posted allegations that the rapper has blackfished her fans. “Literally if you just look at images of her you can physically see her morphing herself over the years into looking Black,” wickedghastly wrote.

2020, Kris Seavers, “Newsletter: Princess Nokia accused of blackfishing”, in Daily Dot:

(Internet slang, derogatory, of a white person) To adopt signifiers of black identity (for example, by darkening the skin, or wearing traditionally black hairstyles).


pilot whale

Either of two species of whale in the genus Globicephala, dark grey in colour.


dwarf sperm whale

en-noun

dwarf sperm whale (plural dwarf sperm whales)

Any of the small whales of the sperm whale superfamily, in species Kogia sima.


pygmy sperm whale

pygmy sperm whale (plural pygmy sperm whales)

One of the two small whales in the sperm whale superfamily (Kogia breviceps).


false killer whale

false killer whale (plural false killer whales)

From false + killer whale; so called for certain similarities to orcas (killer whales).

A dolphin of species Pseudorca crassidens, the sole species of genus Pseudorca and one of the larger dolphin species.


bottlenose dolphin

bottlenose dolphin (plural bottlenose dolphins)

One of the species of gray dolphin in the genus Tursiops, between 2 and 4 meters in length inhabiting warm and temperate seas worldwide.

(historically) Tursiops truncatus, the common bottlenose dolphin, famous for its presence in aquarium shows.


whalefish

whalefish (plural whalefishes or whalefish)

From whale + fish. Compare West Frisian walfisk, Dutch walvis (“whale”), German Low German Waalfisch, German Walfisch (“whale”), Danish hvalfisk (“whale”), Icelandic hvalfiskur.

Any fish of the order Cetomimiformes of deepwater ray-finned fish.


bowhead

Balaena mysticetus
Balaena mysticetus#Translingual

A large baleen whale, Balaena mysticetus, having a large, rounded head, that inhabits Arctic waters.


bottlenose whale

bottlenose whale (plural bottlenose whales)

Any whale of the two species in genus Hyperoodon, both with characteristic bottle-shaped noses.


southern bottlenose whale

southern bottlenose whale (plural southern bottlenose whales)

Any of species Hyperoodon planifrons of bottlenose whales, found in the southern oceans.


bottlenose

From bottle + nose. The creatures have a bottle-shaped nose.


northern bottlenose whale

northern bottlenose whale (plural northern bottlenose whales)

A bottlenose whale of species Hyperoodon ampullatus, endemic to the North Atlantic.


beaked whale

When the beaked whales surfaced near the Sea Shepherd boat, the scientists scrambled to make observations, take photographs, and deploy acoustic-recording buoys: Beaked whales are notoriously skittish.

2021 March 30, J. B. MacKinnon, “An Entire Group of Whales Has Somehow Escaped Human Attention”, in The Atlantic:

Any of at least 20 species of whales in the family Ziphiidae, known to dive to great depths, but not well understood generally.

Layard's beaked whale(Mesoplodon layardii)


whalesong

whalesong (usually uncountable, plural whalesongs)

The sounds through which whales communicate.


spinner

From Middle English spynnere; equivalent to spin + -er.


cowfish

Common bottlenose dolphin
Ostraciidae
Risso's dolphin
Scrawled cowfish

Any of genera Acanthostracion and Lactoria, of the boxfish family Ostraciidae.

A grampus (Grampus griseus), Risso's dolphin.

A marine plectognath fish, Acanthostracion quadricornis and allied species, having two projections, like horns, in front.


minke

From Norwegian minkehval, allegedly after a crew member of the Norwegian whaling pioneer Svend Foyn (1809–1894), named Meincke, who mistook a pod of minkes for blue whales.

Minkes can grow to 10m and are likely to approach boats, delighting passengers with acrobatics as they hurl themselves out of the water.

2005, Andrea Schulte-Peevers, Canada, →ISBN, page 55:


monodon

(zoology) Any toothed whale (such as the narwhal) of the family Monodontidae.


whaleburger

...today when "whaleburger steak" was served at a luncheon of the Institute of Refrigeration. It was part of an experimental consignment of ten tons...

1945, American Polar Society, The Polar Times:

The meat alone was enough to make 800000 "whaleburger" sandwiches. The men also took vitamin oil from the whale's liver.

1963, Paul Andrew Witty, How to Improve Your Reading:

...a blubber-packed whaleburger on a sesame seed bun instead of a flame-broiled burger. Sound unhealthy? Maybe not.

1999, Gale Maleskey, James McCommons, Nature's Medicines:


pakicetid

Any of a group of extinct mammals of the family †Pakicetidae.


bluely

The Sussex fishermen call the porpoise 'Bluely'.

(UK dialectal, Sussex, obsolete) Porpoise.


inia

(zoology) Any South American freshwater dolphin of genus (Inia), with a hairy snout.


turn flukes

en-verb

turn flukes (third-person singular simple present turns flukes, present participle turning flukes, simple past and past participle turned flukes)

turns flukes (present singular third-person)
turning flukes (participle present)
turned flukes (participle past)
turned flukes (past)

But come, it's getting dreadful late, you had better be turning flukes--it's a nice bed; Sal and me slept in that ere bed the night we were spliced.

1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 3”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:


mereswine

en-noun

mereswine (plural mereswines or mereswine)

Inherited from Middle English mereswyn (“porpoise, dolphin”), from Old English mereswīn (“porpoise, dolphin”), from Proto-West Germanic *mariswīn, from Proto-Germanic *mariswīną (“dolphin, porpoise, cetacean”). By surface analysis, mere + swine or mer- + swine.

inh

(rare, poetic, archaic) A porpoise or dolphin.


protocetid

Any of a group of extinct cetaceans, of the family †Protocetidae, from the Eocene period


mysticete

(zoology) Any of the baleen whales (of suborder Mysticeti).


physeteroid

(zoology) Any sperm whale (of the family Physeteridae)


basilosaurus

Any species of several very large extinct cetaceans belonging to the genus †Basilosaurus, of the family †Basilosauridae, from the late Eocene. the two species in the genus B.isis (found in Egypt and Tunisia) and B. cetoides (found in the southern and eastern US).


gray whale

Eschrichtius robustus
Eschrichtius robustus#Translingual

A baleen whale, Eschrichtius robustus, from the north Pacific


devilfish

en-noun

devilfish (plural devilfishes or devilfish)

The California gray whale, or devil-fish (Rhachianectes glaucus), is found only in the North Pacific, and is an object of pursuit by the shore stations established along that coast.

1887, A. Howard Clark, “The American-Whale Fishery”, in Science, volume 9, number 217, New York, N.Y.: American Association for the Advancement of Science, page 323:

The Sarah Warren returned with 1,100 bbls. of "devil fish" oil and 60 bbls. of sperm oil, and her tender, the Nevada, returned with 74, bbls. of whale oil.

1972, David A. Henderson, Men & Whales at Scammon's Lagoon, Los Angeles, C.A.: Dawson's Book Shop, →ISBN, page 270:

Returning, arrived at Honolulu on April 6, with 330 barrels of devil fish oil. Discharged cargo and left again for the Arctic region the latter part of July, 1867, returning the latter part of October, with 850 barrels of oil.

1907, Daniel Logan, A History of the Hawaiian Islands, New York, N.Y., Chicago. I.L.: Lewis Publishing Company, page 231:

Although twice the size of the killers and correspondingly strong, when one of the orcas appears the devilfish become terrified and either wildly dash for shore or turn belly up at the surface, with fins outspread, paralyzed by fright.

1916, Roy Chapman Andrews, Whale Hunting with Gun and Camera, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, page 197:

(dated) Any of several not closely related marine animals:

Elliott's "South Carolina Field Sports" is a very interesting and entirely trustworthy record of the sporting side of existence on the old Southern plantations, and not only commemorates how the planters hunted bear, deer, fox, and wildcat in the cane-brakes, but also gives a unique description of harpooning the devil-fish in the warm Southern waters.

1893, Theodore Roosevelt, George Bird Grinnell, American Big-game Hunting: The Book of the Boone and Crockett Club, New York, N.Y.: Forest and Stream Publishing Co, page 323:

The Tectospondyli contains those dog-fishes which have no anal fin, and the rays and devil-fishes.

1901, William Plane Pycraft, The Story Of Fish Life, London: George Newnes, page 173:

There the great ray, the devilfish, powerful, swift, mighty, tons in weight, spreads his huge black wings; […]

1905, A. S. J. Newberry, “The Song of the Spear”, in Forest and Stream, volume 44, number 15, New York, N.Y.: Forest and Stream Publishing Company, page 295:

Indeed the same time-worn phrase if considered horizontally would be less than the actual fact if applied to some of the devilfish or giant rays which we saw.

1926, William Beebe, The Arcturus Adventure, New York, N.Y., London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, page 206:

Viennese marine biologist Han Haas lived for six months on an Arab fishing boat on the Red Sea in 120 degree heat. He bumped noses with sharks and deadly devil fish while he photographed the briny deep.

1951, “Woman Diverts Attention From Filming Undersea”, in The Atlanta Constitution, volume 84, number 148, page 12:

Thinking a whale had just sounded after hitting the water with its tail, I was about to turn away from it, when, like a great white owl, thirty feet across, and half as much from nose to tail, a gigantic eagle-ray or devil-fish, leaped silently out of the water, with its wings spread wide, planed for a short distance, and struck the water flat, with a similar detonation.

1951, Roy Campbell, Light on a Dark Horse: An Autobiography, Chicago, I.L.: Henry Regnery Company, published 1952, page 149:

The largest rays, like the largest sharks, are plankton strainers. Devilfishes or manta rays of the family Mobulidae are up to 6 meters in width.

2002, F. Harvey Pough, Christine M. Janis, John B. Heiser, Vertebrate Life, 6th edition, Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, →ISBN, page 127:

These "devil fish" may have seemed terrifying then, but these days, the opportunity to swim with manta rays lures divers to Tobago, Trinidad's smaller, less-developed neighbor.

2004 October 31, Susan Enfield Esrey, “Far From the Bubblin' Crowd”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2016-04-03:

The manta ray; any ray in the genus Mobula.

(specifically) The devil ray, Mobula mobular.


physeterid

(zoology) Any sperm whale of family Physeteridae


tucuxi

A freshwater dolphin, estuarine dolphin Sotalia fluviatilis, found in the rivers of the Amazon Basin


whale watching

The practice of observing whales and other cetaceans in their natural habitat.

觀賞鯨魚

observing whales in their natural habitat


spinner dolphin

spinner dolphin (plural spinner dolphins)

Spinner dolphins of both sexes sometimes engage in orgies of more than a dozen individuals, known as ‘wuzzles’.

2012, Caspar Henderson, The Book of Barely Imagined Beings, Granta Books, published 2013, page 59:

A species of small dolphin (Stenella longirostris).


common dolphin

One of two species of dolphin in the genus Delphinus.


toothed whale

(marine biology) A whale of the Odontoceti clade of the cetaceans, including sperm whales, beaked whales, dolphins, and others. Such whales, unlike baleen whales, have teeth.


deductor

From deduct + -or under influence from Latin dēductor.

One who deducts something, particularly one who deducts tax from wages or deducts certain expenditures from payment of tax.


deductor

From Latin dēductor (“guide; founder”). See deduce.

(historical) The formal patron of a Roman colony.


whalefall

From whale + fall, possibly modelled after snowfall. Compare also marine snow.

But the ocean floor is not exactly wall-to-wall whalefalls.

2007 December 18, Henry Fountain, “Whales Are Tasty, but Bone-Eating Worms Might Not Discriminate”, in New York Times:

A whale carcass that has fallen to the ocean floor.


ziphiid

(zoology) Any of the family Ziphiidae of beaked whales and bottlenose whales.


sperm oil

sperm oil (countable and uncountable, plural sperm oils)

Whale oil that is extracted from a sperm whale.


delphinoid

From Latin delphinus (“a dolphin”) + -oid.

Any cetacean of the superfamily Delphinoidea


harbour porpoise

harbour porpoise (plural harbour porpoises)

Smaller than a human being at roughly 1.5m in length, the harbour porpoise is not easy to spot.

2019, James Proctor, Faroe Islands, 5th edition, Bradt Travel Guides, page 7:

Phocoena phocoena
Phocoena phocoena#Translingual

A porpoise, Phocoena phocoena, that inhabits coastal areas and river estuaries.


seaswine

From sea + swine. Compare Middle English brunswin (“porpoise”).

The seaswine are almost always seen in troops, especially in their sexual season, which is in the month of August.

1828, John Davidson Godman, American natural history:


sea hog

"[O]ne would have judged from its motley hues, exhibiting the consistence and appearance of variegated fancy soap, that it was the flesh of the porpoise or sea-hog, and had been an inhabitant of the ocean rather than of the stye."

1890, Willis J. Abbot, chapter 24, in The Naval History of the United States, volume 1:

The story of the transformation of the mariners is supposed by Bochart to have been founded on the adventure of certain merchants from the coast of Etruria, whose vessel had the figure of a dolphin at the prow, or rather of the fish called ‘tursio,’ probably the porpoise, or sea-hog.

1899, Henry Thomas Riley (translator), Ovid (author), The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Book 3, Fable 8 (translator's explanation)


physeter

(zoology) A member of the genus Physeter; a sperm whale.


skullfish

(nautical, whaling, obsolete) A whale more than two years old.


sea pig

A sea cucumber in the genus Scotoplanes.


dolphinet

The lyon chose his mate, the turtle dove / Her deare, the dolphin his owne dolphinet

1595, Ed. Spencer [i.e., Edmund Spenser], “Colin Clouts Come Home Againe”, in Colin Clouts Come Home Againe, London: […] T[homas] C[reede] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:


zeuglodont

(zoology) Any of the family †Basilosauridae of extinct cetaceans, formerly under the taxonomically invalid name Zeuglodontidae.


delphin

(organic chemistry) A fatty substance contained in the oil of the dolphin and the porpoise.


squalodont

In squalodonts, the maxillae extend posteriorly over the parietals to reach the exoccipitals in adult specimens.

2002, A. Rus Hoelzel, Marine Mammal Biology:

(zoology) Any of the extinct genus Squalodon of whales.


odontocete

Learned borrowing from New Latin Odontoceti, From Ancient Greek ὀδόντος (odóntos, “teeth”) + κῆτος (kêtos, “whale”).

noncog

Sperm whales and dolphins are odontocetes.

(zoology) Any member of the cetacean suborder Odontoceti; a toothed whale.


cetacea

Of cetacea, or whale-like mammals, sixty-five; ruminantia, or cud-chewers, one hundred and seventy-seven; pachydermata, or thick-skinned mammals, such as the horse, hog, and elephant, forty-one; edentata, like the sloth and ant-eater, thirty-five; rodentia, or gnawers, such as the rat, squirrel, and beaver, six hundred and seventeen; carnivora, or flesh-eaters, four hundred and forty-six; cheiroptera, or bats, three hundred and twenty-eight; quadrumana, or monkeys, two hundred and twenty-one; and marsupialia, or pouched mammals, like the opossum and kangaroo, one hundred and thirty-seven.

1882, William Denton, The Deluge in the Light of Modern Science:

But here we give no such extracts, but content ourselves with four short skits, having the cetacea for their subject.

--Acalephae[1] are plentiful, so much so, indeed, that they occasionally tempt the larger cetacea into the Gulf of Manaar.

1861, J. Emerson Tennent, Sketches of Natural History of Ceylon:

PORPOISES AT MORETON BAY. Among the marine animals of Moreton Bay are two cetacea of great interest.

1852, John MacGillivray, Narrative Of The Voyage Of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, Commanded By The Late Captain Owen Stanley, R.N., F.R.S. Etc. During The Years 1846-1850. Including Discoveries And Surveys In New Guinea, The Louisiade Archipelago, Etc. To Which Is Added The Account Of Mr. E.B. Kennedy's Expedition For The Exploration Of The Cape York Peninsula. By John Macgillivray, F.R.G.S. Naturalist To The Expedition. In Two Volumes. Volume 1.:


dunter

"Here an old woman, thinking to help her pastor out of a dead lift, cried out, 'Aiblins, Sir, it was a dunter.' (The vulgar name of a species of whale common to the Scotch coast.)

1845, Thomas Ingoldsby [pseudonym; Richard Barham], The Ingoldsby Legends, New York, N.Y.: W. J. Widdleton, published 1865, page 80:

Porpoises, it is true, and "dunters" may be seen gambolling along the coast of Durham, but even that royal fish, the sturgeon, often caught in the last century, as the files of the Newcastle Courant prove, is a rarity on the coast.

1883, “Local Records and Notes”, in Newcastle Courant, Newcastle upon Tyne, England, page 2:

The sperm whale is of course the best producer, but this species is not flagrant in the southern seas. The whale usually found is small in size and the head reservoir does not contain very large quantities of the oil. Among the smaller Cataceans, the porpoises, the puffy dunters, and grampuses, an excellent grade of oil is secured for commercial purposes by the natives who ply the waters many days and nights seeking the specie.^([sic])

1904, “South Sea Fish Oils”, in Pacific Oil Reporter, volume 6, number 1, San Francisco, C.A.: Pacific Oil Reporter, page 5:

(dialect, Scotland, Northumberland) A porpoise.


sea canary

So called from the whistling sound which it makes.


doegling

From a typographical variant of Danish døgling, from Faroese døglingur, which now refers to the northern bottlenose whale (Hyperoodon ampullatus).

This acid is, moreover, not combined with oxide of lipyl in the Doegling train-oil, (at least it yields no glycerine on saponification,) but probably with doeglic oxide, C₂₄H₂₅O, a body similar to the ether-like haloid bases, whose existence and composition Scharling, however, only infers from the analysis of the unsaponified Doegling train-oil and the absence of glycerine.

1851, Karl Gotthelf Lehmann, Physiological Chemistry, London: Cavendish Society, page 116:

Doegling Train Oil. From the doegling (the Balœna rostrata of Chemnitz, Hyperodon of later zoologists), a kind of dolphin.

1866, Leopold Gmelin, Hand-Book of Chemistry, London: Cavendish Society, page 180:

An ointment base said to be a mixture of soap, carnauba wax, and doegling oil.

1904, George M. Gould, “Myronin”, in A Dictionary of New Medical Terms, Philadelphia, P.A.: P. Blakiston, page 374:

northern bottlenose whale
northern bottlenose whale

A northern bottlenose whale (Hyperoodon ampullatus), from which oil was once obtained.


squalodon

(paleontology) Any of a genus of extinct whales with serrated teeth, belonging to the family Squalodontidae.


whale fall

A whale carcass that has fallen to the seafloor, which in deeper water can sustain a diverse local ecosystem for decades.


white-beaked dolphin

en-noun

white-beaked dolphin (plural white-beaked dolphins)

A marine mammal belonging to the family Delphinidae (dolphins) in the suborder Odontoceti (toothed whales), Lagenorhynchus albirostris.


pellack

Did not the devil appear in the midst of the Tay, dressed in a priest's scapular, gambolling like a pellack amongst the waves

1828 May 15, [Walter Scott], Chronicles of the Canongate. Second Series. […] (The Fair Maid of Perth), volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] [Ballantyne and Co.] for Cadell and Co.; London: Simpkin and Marshall, →OCLC:

(Northern England, Scotland, archaic) A porpoise.


ambulocetid

(zoology) Any extinct cetacean in the family Ambulocetidae.


balaenid

(zoology) Any member of the family Balaenidae; a right whale.


balaenopterid

(zoology) Any member of family Balaenopteridae of rorqual whales.


basilosaurid

(zoology) Any extinct cetacean of the family Basilosauridae.


cetotheriid

(zoology) Any whale in the family Cetotheriidae.


delphinid

(zoology) Any marine mammal in the family Delphinidae, the dolphins, killer whales, pilot whales, and relatives.


eschrichtiid

(zoology) Any member of the family Eschrichtiidae of gray whales.


eurhinodelphinid

(zoology) Any toothed whale in the family Eurhinodelphinidae.


hyperoodontid

(zoology) Any beaked whale in the family Hyperoodontidae, a synonym of the Ziphiidae.


iniid

According to Cozzuol (1996), iniids (including fossil taxa) are characterized by an extremely elongated rostrum and mandible, very narrow supraoccipital, greatly reduced orbital region, and pneumatized maxillae forming a crest.

2015, Annalisa Berta, Marine Mammals: Evolutionary Biology, page 88:

(zoology) Any river dolphin of the family Iniidae.


kentriodontid

(zoology) Any extinct cetacean in the family Kentriodontidae.


kogiid

clipping

translingual <i class="Latn mention" lang="mul">Kogiidae</i>

(zoology) Any whale in the family Kogiidae.


lipotid

(zoology) Any river dolphin of the family Lipotidae.


monodontid

(zoology) Any member of the family Monodontidae; a beluga or a narwhal.


neobalaenid

(zoology) Any whale in the family Neobalaenidae; a pygmy right whale.


phocoenid

(zoology) Any member of the Phocoenidae; a porpoise.


platanistid

(zoology) Any river dolphin in the Platanistidae.


platanistoid

(zoology) Any river dolphin in the superfamily Platanistoidea.


pontoporiid

(zoology) Any dolphin of the family Pontoporiidae


remingtonocetid

(zoology) Any member of the family Remingtonocetidae.


squalodontid

(zoology) Any in the family Squalodontidae of extinct toothed whales.


lobtail

en-verb

lobtail (third-person singular simple present lobtails, present participle lobtailing, simple past and past participle lobtailed)

lobtails (present singular third-person)
lobtailing (participle present)
lobtailed (participle past)
lobtailed (past)

(of a whale) To raise the flukes out of the water and then slap them down against the water surface.


whalelore

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-whalelore.wav

Member of the Danish Rigsdag, the king's sheriff in Faroe, a man of the simplest manners and most varied knowledge and intelligence, great in whalelore and fowllore, strong in deep- sea fishing, a great gatherer of strange over-sea waifs, […]

1864, The North British review, page 300:

A whale of a whale adventure on one of the few sailing vessels still occasionally in use. The author has packed standard ingredients into this story, including a fiendish captain, detailed information on whalelore and modern whaling methods.

1960, Michael Williams, Commonweal, volume 72, page 235:

But his pretense to whalelore didn't even have an aficionado's sincerity. Grey didn't like him.

1973, John Wood Campbell, Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, volume 92:

The project itself, in short, generates the need for figuration, itself compactly figured in the Swiss Army knife...in the amount of whalelore that might be considered, but there turns out to be no inherent limit to the number of cognitive strategies for knowledge about whalelore that might be tested.

1987, Udo Fries, The Structure of texts, page 213:

The knowledge, study, or science of whales.


white whale

From white + whale. The figurative senses refer to the novel Moby-Dick (1851) by the American writer Herman Melville (1819–1891), in which Captain Ahab relentlessly pursues a rare albino sperm whale.

The English called the beluga the "white whale", a name often still used (and not to be confused with the white whale of Moby-Dick, which was an albino sperm whale).

2007, Nancy Lord, “Prologue”, in Beluga Days: Tracking the Endangered White Whale, pages 22–23:

Delphinapterus leucas
Delphinapterus leucas#Translingual

beluga

Synonym of beluga (“the beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas), a cetacean found in the Arctic Ocean”)

Monodon monoceros
Monodon monoceros#Translingual

Any whale of the family Monodontidae, which comprises the beluga whales and narwhals (Monodon monoceros), and some extinct species.

(collectible card games) A printing plate, used to manufacture a particular sports card, that is then issued as a collectible itself.

печа́тарска пло́ча

printing plate used to manufacture a particular sports card, that is then issued as a collectible itself


franciscana

La Plata dolphin
La Plata dolphin#English


spermaceti whale

en-noun

spermaceti whale (plural spermaceti whales)


puffing pig

(obsolete) A porpoise, especially the harbour porpoise.


walking whale

Ambulocetus natans, an early cetacean that could walk as well as swim.


scrag whale

A North Atlantic baleen whale now generally considered to be part of an extinct population of the gray whale, Eschrichtius robustus, once considered by some the young of right whales (Balaenidae).


beluga whale

beluga

Synonym of beluga (“a cetacean, Delphinapterus leucas, found in the Arctic Ocean”)


Bryde's whale

Named after Johan Bryde, Norwegian consul to South Africa who helped establish the first modern whaling station in the country.

Balaenoptera brydei
Balaenoptera brydei#Translingual

Balaenoptera brydei, a species of rorqual.


dolphinkind

[…] one dedicated to the notion that the proper study of dolphinkind is dolphin: a man who believes that any discoveries made about the mammals should remain private and not be put to cheap, practical use.

1974, The Atlantic Monthly, volume 233, page 7:

So there is something a little odd about this solitary animal, who rarely allows anyone to touch him and seems to have no need of other dolphinkind.

1995, Patricia Levy, Direct from Southwest Ireland: Kerry and West Cork, page 179:

The Tillek said those points were the spaceships that had brought humankind and dolphinkind to Pern.

2002, Anne McCaffrey, The Dolphins of Pern, page 4:


La Plata dolphin

La Plata dolphin (plural La Plata dolphins)

Pontoporia blainvillei, a dolphin found in the coastal Atlantic waters of southeastern South America.


whitebelly

whitebelly puffer

whitebelly tree frog

whitebelly damselfish

The only kind of tree frog I've seen around here is the whitebelly.

(often used attributively) An animal characterized by a white belly


delphinologist

An expert on dolphins, someone who studies delphinology


delphinology

And yet, only some of the mysteries I wanted to explore lay within the limited purview of delphinology. There were associated spiritual, even paranormal, issues—taboo lines of inquiry shunned by modern science—that were too integrally bound up in the whole enigma for dismissal or avoidance.

2016, Frank Joseph, Our Dolphin Ancestors: Keepers of Lost Knowledge and Healing Wisdom:


Yangtze dolphin

Yangtze dolphin (plural Yangtze dolphins)


whitefin dolphin

whitefin dolphin (plural whitefin dolphins)


Chinese river dolphin

Chinese river dolphin (plural Chinese river dolphins)


Chinese white dolphin

Chinese white dolphin (plural Chinese white dolphins)

Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin
Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin

A subspecies of the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin (Sousa chinensis chinensis), of the Pearl River Delta, which become whitish pink coloured as they age.


snubfin

A dolphin, Orcaella heinsohni, that lives in northern Australian waters


porcpisce

snores like a porcpisce

1609 December (first performance), Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Epicoene, or The Silent Woman. A Comœdie. […]”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):


eomysticetid

(zoology) Any member of the Eomysticetidae, a family of extinct mysticetes.


tranatocetid

This anatomy is superficially similar to that of Cetotheriidae and some tranatocetids were previously considered to be cetotheres and even identified as Cetotherium.

2015 September 3, “From Problem Taxa to Problem Solver: A New Miocene Family, Tranatocetidae, Brings Perspective on Baleen Whale Evolution”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI:

(zoology) Any member of the family †Tranatocetidae, which is represented by the sole species †Tranatocetus argillarius, a cetacean.


tursiop

After the detection of a whistle, the localization of the tursiop is performed comparing the sound direction and the arrival time for each detection unit.

2016 January 21, “A Permanent Automated Real-Time Passive Acoustic Monitoring System for Bottlenose Dolphin Conservation in the Mediterranean Sea”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI:

(rare, nonstandard) A bottlenose dolphin (of the genus Tursiops).


Atlantic spotted dolphin

Atlantic spotted dolphin (plural Atlantic spotted dolphins)

Stenella frontalis, a dolphin found in the Gulf Stream of the North Atlantic Ocean.


pantropical spotted dolphin

pantropical spotted dolphin (plural pantropical spotted dolphins)

Stenella attenuata, a dolphin found in temperate and tropical oceans.


melon-headed whale

melon-headed whale (plural melon-headed whales)

A cetacean of species Peponocephala electra, in the oceanic dolphin family Delphinidae.


river dolphin

(zoology) Any dolphin that is found only in fresh or brackish water, now considered in one of three superfamilies Platanistoidea, †Lipotoidea, Inioidea, all in parvorder Odontoceti or in a grouping with hippopotamuses.

jokidelfiini

dolphin found only in fresh and brackish water


rhabdosteid

(zoology) Any extinct cetacean in the family Rhabdosteidae.


whalebone whale

whalebone whale (plural whalebone whales)


finless porpoise

finless porpoise (plural finless porpoises)

Neophocaena phocaenoides, a species of porpoise that lacks a true dorsal fin and is found in the coastal waters of Asia, especially around Japan, Korea, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, India and Bangladesh.


vaquita marina

The vaquita marina, known as the "panda of the sea" for the distinctive markings circling its eyes, has been pushed to the brink of extinction by illegal gillnet fishing.

The nets used to catch the totoaba have also contributed to the demise of another critically endangered species, the vaquita marina, the world’s smallest porpoise.


Antarctic minke whale

Antarctic minke whale (plural Antarctic minke whales)

Some species have rebounded since then – humpbacks and Antarctic minke whales, for instance, are expected to reach their pre-whaling population numbers by 2050.

2018 June 20, Chelsea Murray, The Guardian:

A species of minke whale, Balaenoptera bonaerensis, found mainly in the southern hemisphere.


aetiocetid

A 25-million-year-old fossil whale from Washington State, specimen NMV P252567 – or ‘Alfred’ to his friends – belongs to an extinct group of whales called aetiocetids.

2016 November 30, Elsa Panciroli, “How did the whale get its 'moustache'?”, in The Guardian:

A member of the extinct family of baleen whales Aetiocetidae.


balaenopteroid

Any baleen whale of the superfamily Balaenopteroidea


herpetocetine

Any mysticete of the subfamily Herpetocetinae


Risso's dolphin

Risso's dolphin (plural Risso's dolphins)

Named after Antoine Risso, who provided an early description.

Grampus griseus, a large dolphin found in temperate and tropical waters worldwide.


squalodelphinid

Any platanistoid river dolphin of the family Squalodelphinidae


inioid

Any river dolphin of the superfamily Inioidea


piebald dolphin

piebald dolphin (plural piebald dolphins)


panda dolphin

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-panda dolphin.wav

Commerson's dolphin (Cephalorhynchus commersonii)


Commerson's dolphin

Commerson's dolphin (plural Commerson's dolphins)

Named after French naturalist Dr Philibert Commerson, who first described them in 1767 after sighting them in the Strait of Magellan.

A species of oceanic dolphin, Cephalorhynchus commersonii, found in South America and the Kerguelen Islands


pink dolphin

A subspecies of the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin (Sousa chinensis chinensis), of the Pearl River Delta, which gain pink coloration as they age.


Amazon River dolphin

Amazon River dolphin (plural Amazon River dolphins)

Inia geoffrensis
Inia geoffrensis#Translingual

A species of dolphin (Inia geoffrensis) of the Amazon River.


Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin

Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin (plural Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins)

A species of dolphin (Sousa chinensis), of the Indian and Pacific Oceans.


balenopterid

Any baleen whale of the family Balaenopteridae


dusky dolphin

Lagenorhynchus obscurus, a dolphin found in coastal waters in the Southern Hemisphere.


Heaviside's dolphin

Heaviside's dolphin (plural Heaviside's dolphins)

Early in the 19th century, a specimen was caught off the Cape of Good Hope by a Captain Haviside of the British East India Company. Zoologist John Edward Gray then misidentified Haviside as the surgeon John Heaviside, who was known for his own biological collections at the time.

Cephalorhynchus heavisidii, a small dolphin endemic to the Benguela ecosystem along the southwest coast of Africa.


afalina

The largest and rarest of all three Black Sea dolphins species is the "Black Sea pig" or afalina (Tursiops tursio Fabr.). The external appearance of the afalina differs from that of the other two dolphins. The beak is significantly shorter than that of the common dolphin.

In 1993 it opened a Dolphinarium whereat presently live seven dolphins - afalinas from the Black Sea. They not only entertain spectators but also gladly communicate with children having disability - […]

A biotechnical complex had been developed for the dolphin therapy sessions that included Black Sea Afalina dolphins specially trained according to the researcher's methods.

2012, Cynthia K. Chandler, Animal Assisted Therapy in Counseling, Routledge, →ISBN, page 232:

Tursiops truncatus
Tursiops truncatus#Translingual

A Black Sea bottlenose dolphin; Tursiops truncatus.


whalehood

The state or condition of being a whale.


Black Sea bottlenose dolphin

Black Sea bottlenose dolphin (plural Black Sea bottlenose dolphins)

bottlenose dolphin
bottlenose dolphin#English

Synonym of bottlenose dolphin; Tursiops truncatus.


Fraser's dolphin

Fraser's dolphin (plural Fraser's dolphins)

From Fraser + -'s + dolphin, named after Francis Fraser, who first studied it.

Lagenodelphis hosei, a species of oceanic dolphin.


whalekind

It was a leading question, and its hidden meaning was not lost on any of them, for Triton was a big and powerful Sperm Whale and they knew that he would gladly fight Poseidon for the future of whalekind, even unto death.

2009, R.A.R. Clouston, The Tempest's Roar, page 291:

("A nation of armless Buddhas" was one Greenpeace cofounder's description of whalekind.)

2020, Rebecca Giggs, Fathoms: The World in the Whale, page 153:

He displaces the violence emblemized by the whaling industry away from whales and onto humankind's fate while transcoding Ahab's defiance as the whale's defiance. Thus he projects humanlike consciousness into the deep, whalekind chronology that, Ishmael says, will outlast humankind's fated time.

2021, Rebecca Giggs, Timothy Sweet, page 91:


longfin pilot whale

longfin pilot whale (plural longfin pilot whales)

Unfortunately, the exact populations of the above mammals are not known, although it is believed that longfin pilot whales are very common throughout the North Atlantic.

2019, James Proctor, Faroe Islands, 5th edition, Bradt Travel Guides, page 7:

A large species of dolphin, Globicephala melas, of the North Atlantic and Southern Ocean.


white-sided dolphin

white-sided dolphin (plural white-sided dolphins)

The white-sided dolphin is very agile and often breaches and lobtails, surfacing to breathe about every 15 seconds.

Atlantic white-sided dolphin
Atlantic white-sided dolphin

Pacific white-sided dolphin
Pacific white-sided dolphin

Any dolphin of the genus Lagenorhynchus which have conspicuous white markings on the sides of the body: especially Lagenorhynchus acutus in the North Atlantic (the Atlantic white-sided dolphin), and Lagenorhynchus obliquidens in the North Pacific (the Pacific white-sided dolphin).


Peale's dolphin

Peale's dolphin (plural Peale's dolphins)

Named after American artist, naturalist, and explorer Titian Peale (1799–1885), who first noted the species in 1848.

A small dolphin (Lagenorhynchus australis) found in the waters around Tierra del Fuego at the foot of South America.


Clymene dolphin

Clymene dolphin (plural Clymene dolphins)

A dolphin (Stenella clymene) endemic to the Atlantic Ocean that is the only confirmed case of hybrid speciation in marine mammals, descending from the spinner dolphin and the striped dolphin.


striped dolphin

striped dolphin (plural striped dolphins)

An extensively studied dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba), found in temperate and tropical waters of all the world's oceans.


pygmy blue whale

pygmy blue whale (plural pygmy blue whales)

A small kind of blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus brevicauda


great whale

Other early hunters of whales included [...] the Basques, who developed the first organized whale fishery [...] in the Bay of Biscay, and who managed through overfishing virtually to eliminate an entire stock of great whales - those known as the Biscayan right whales.

1971 Dec, National Geographic, page 725:

Any of the largest thirteen species of whale currently extant (a polyphyletic grouping, all of which are baleen whales except the sperm whale).


desert whale

Sometimes it is called the desert whale because its winter mating and calving grounds lie along a desolate stretch of Mexico's Pacific shore.

1971 Mar, National Geographic, page 396:


Biscayan right whale

Biscayan right whale (plural Biscayan right whales)

A species of baleen whale, Eubalaena glacialis, of the north Atlantic Ocean.


spectacled porpoise

spectacled porpoise (plural spectacled porpoises)

A species of porpoise, Phocoena dioptrica


pink river dolphin

pink river dolphin (plural pink river dolphins)

An Amazon river dolphin (Inia geoffrensis).