porpoise

Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to: navigation, search

Contents

[edit] English

Phocoena phocoena (1)

[edit] Pronunciation

[edit] Etymology

From Middle English porpeys, purpeys, from Anglo-Norman porpeis, purpeis, Old French pourpois, 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.

[edit] Noun

Wikipedia has an article on:

Wikipedia porpoise (plural porpoises)

  1. A small cetacean of the family Phocoenidae, related to whales and dolphins.
  2. (North America, imprecisely) Any small dolphin.

[edit] Synonyms

[edit] Translations

[edit] Verb

porpoise (third-person singular simple present porpoises, present participle porpoising, simple past and past participle porpoised)

  1. (intransitive) Said of an aircraft: to make a series of plunges when taking off or landing.

[edit] See also

Personal tools
Namespaces
Variants
Views
Actions
Navigation
Toolbox
In other languages