"right whale" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "right"
      },
      "expansion": "right",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "whale"
      },
      "expansion": "whale",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "right"
      },
      "expansion": "right",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "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\".",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "right whales",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "right whale (plural right whales)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
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          "source": "w"
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          "parents": [
            "Entries with topic categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w"
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          "kind": "other",
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          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "lifeform",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Whales",
          "orig": "en:Whales",
          "parents": [
            "Cetaceans",
            "Even-toed ungulates",
            "Mammals",
            "Vertebrates",
            "Chordates",
            "Animals",
            "Lifeforms",
            "All topics",
            "Life",
            "Fundamental",
            "Nature"
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          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "derived": [
        {
          "word": "Biscayan right whale"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2018 June 20, Chelsea Murray, The Guardian",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "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)."
      ],
      "id": "en-right_whale-en-noun-tV9Z8TbI",
      "links": [
        [
          "baleen whale",
          "baleen whale"
        ],
        [
          "Balaenidae",
          "Balaenidae#Translingual"
        ],
        [
          "genera",
          "genera"
        ],
        [
          "Balaena",
          "Balaena#Translingual"
        ],
        [
          "bowhead whale",
          "bowhead whale"
        ]
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "ca",
          "lang": "Catalan",
          "sense": "any of certain baleen whales of the family Balaenidae",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "balena franca"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "any of certain baleen whales of the family Balaenidae",
          "word": "露脊鯨"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "lùjǐjīng",
          "sense": "any of certain baleen whales of the family Balaenidae",
          "word": "露脊鲸"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "english": "family Balaenidae",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "any of certain baleen whales of the family Balaenidae",
          "word": "silovalas"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "english": "genus Balaena",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "any of certain baleen whales of the family Balaenidae",
          "word": "grönlanninvalas"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "english": "genus Eubalaena",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "any of certain baleen whales of the family Balaenidae",
          "word": "mustavalas"
        },
        {
          "code": "mi",
          "lang": "Maori",
          "sense": "any of certain baleen whales of the family Balaenidae",
          "word": "tohorā"
        },
        {
          "code": "mi",
          "lang": "Maori",
          "sense": "any of certain baleen whales of the family Balaenidae",
          "word": "kewa"
        },
        {
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "any of certain baleen whales of the family Balaenidae",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "baleia-franca"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "any of certain baleen whales of the family Balaenidae",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "ballena franca"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "right whale"
}

{
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "Biscayan right whale"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "right"
      },
      "expansion": "right",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "whale"
      },
      "expansion": "whale",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "right"
      },
      "expansion": "right",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "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\".",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "right whales",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "right whale (plural right whales)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Entries missing English vernacular names of taxa",
        "Entries using missing taxonomic name (genus)",
        "en:Whales"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2018 June 20, Chelsea Murray, The Guardian",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "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)."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "baleen whale",
          "baleen whale"
        ],
        [
          "Balaenidae",
          "Balaenidae#Translingual"
        ],
        [
          "genera",
          "genera"
        ],
        [
          "Balaena",
          "Balaena#Translingual"
        ],
        [
          "bowhead whale",
          "bowhead whale"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "ca",
      "lang": "Catalan",
      "sense": "any of certain baleen whales of the family Balaenidae",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "balena franca"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "any of certain baleen whales of the family Balaenidae",
      "word": "露脊鯨"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "lùjǐjīng",
      "sense": "any of certain baleen whales of the family Balaenidae",
      "word": "露脊鲸"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "english": "family Balaenidae",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "any of certain baleen whales of the family Balaenidae",
      "word": "silovalas"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "english": "genus Balaena",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "any of certain baleen whales of the family Balaenidae",
      "word": "grönlanninvalas"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "english": "genus Eubalaena",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "any of certain baleen whales of the family Balaenidae",
      "word": "mustavalas"
    },
    {
      "code": "mi",
      "lang": "Maori",
      "sense": "any of certain baleen whales of the family Balaenidae",
      "word": "tohorā"
    },
    {
      "code": "mi",
      "lang": "Maori",
      "sense": "any of certain baleen whales of the family Balaenidae",
      "word": "kewa"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "any of certain baleen whales of the family Balaenidae",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "baleia-franca"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "any of certain baleen whales of the family Balaenidae",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "ballena franca"
    }
  ],
  "word": "right whale"
}