pelican

See also: pélican and Pelican

English

Australian pelican (Pelecanus conspicillatus)

Alternative forms

• pelecan (archaic)

Etymology

From Middle English pellican, pellicane, from Old English pellican (“pelican”), from Latin pelecānus, from Ancient Greek πελεκάν (pelekán), πέλεκυς (pélekus, “hatchet”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈpɛl.ɪ.kən/, /ˈpɛl.ə.kən/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

pelican (plural pelicans)

2. Any of various seabirds of the family Pelecanidae, having a long bill with a distendable pouch.
   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter III, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 54:

     The old have outlived that mental world we so misname in calling it a world of enjoyment;—they have outlived the feverish dreams which waste those keen hopes—the pelicans of the heart, feeding on the life-blood of their parent;—they have now no part in the excitement of success, whether in its desire or disappointment.

   • 1981, Gene Wolfe, chapter VIII, in The Claw of the Conciliator (The Book of the New Sun; 2), New York: Timescape, →ISBN, page 71:

     Pelicans fly below us with stiffly formal strokes, and gulls wheel and keen.

3. A native or resident of the American state of Louisiana.
4. (chemistry, obsolete) A retort or still having a curved tube or tubes leading back from the head to the body for continuous condensation and redistillation.
5. (dentistry) A set of forceps used to force overcrowded teeth apart.

   Synonym: dental pelican

Derived terms

• Australian pelican
• brown pelican
• dental pelican
• pelican crossing
• pelican eel
• pelican flower
• pelican gulper
• Pelican Island
• pelicanist
• pelicanlike
• pelican pot
• pelican spider
• Pelican State
• spot-billed pelican

Translations

any of various seabirds of the family Pelecanidae

• Albanian: laradash (sq), bozhor (sq)
• Arabic: بَجَع (bajaʕ)
• Armenian: հավալուսն (hy) (havalusn)
• Assamese: ভেলা (bhela), ঢেঁৰা (dhẽra)
• Asturian: pelícanu (ast) m
• Azerbaijani: qutan (az)
• Basque: pelikano
• Belarusian: пелікан m (pjelikan)
• Breton: pilikant
• Bulgarian: пеликан m (pelikan)
• Burmese: ငှက်ကြီးဝန်ပို (my) (hngakkri:wanpui)
• Catalan: pelicà (ca) m
• Chechen: пеликан (pelikan)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 鵜鶘 / 鹈鹕 (zh) (tíhú)

• Czech: pelikán (cs) m
• Danish: pelikan (da) c
• Dutch: pelikaan (nl) m
• Esperanto: pelikano
• Estonian: pelikan
• Finnish: pelikaani (fi)
• French: pélican (fr) m
• Galician: pelicano (gl)
• Georgian: ვარხვი (varxvi)
• German: Pelikan (de) m
• Greek: πελεκάνος (el) m (pelekános)

  Ancient: πελεκάν m (pelekán), ὀνοκρόταλος m (onokrótalos)

• Gujarati: પેણ n (peṇ)
• Hebrew: שַׂקְנַאי (he)
• Hungarian: pelikán (hu), gödény (hu)
• Icelandic: pelíkani m
• Indonesian: burung undan, pelikan (id)
• Irish: peileacán m
• Italian: pellicano (it) m
• Japanese: ペリカン (ja) (perikan), 伽藍鳥 (ja) (がらんちょう, garanchō)
• Kazakh: бірқазан (bırqazan)
• Khmer: ទុង (km) (tung)
• Klamath-Modoc: komal
• Korean: 펠리컨 (pellikeon)
• Kriol: baligan
• Kumyk: биркъазан (birqazan)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: کەڵک (kellk)

• Latin: pelecānus m
• Latvian: pelikāns m
• Lithuanian: pelikanas (lt) m
• Macedonian: пелика́н (mk) m (pelikán)
• Malay: burung undan
• Manchu: ᡨᡳᡵᡥᡡᡨᠠᠨ (tirhūtan), ᡴᡡᡨᠠᠨ (kūtan)
• Maori: perikana
• Middle English: pellican
• Navajo: tsídiidaatsohí
• Ngarrindjeri: nori
• Norman: pélican m (Jersey)
• Norwegian: pelikan m
• Occitan: pelican (oc) m
• Old English: stānġiella m
• Oromo: aallaattii
• Ottoman Turkish: سقا قوشی (saka kuşu)
• Polish: pelikan (pl)
• Portuguese: pelicano (pt) m
• Romanian: pelican (ro) m
• Russian: пелика́н (ru) m (pelikán)
• S'gaw Karen: ထိၣ်ဒိၣ်ဖုၣ်ခီၣ် (hṭoh̀ doh̀ hpù khaẁ)
• Saterland Frisian: Pelikoan
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: пелѝка̄н m, нѐсит m

  Roman: pelìkān (sh) m, nèsit (sh) m

• Slovak: pelikán m
• Slovene: pelikan (sl) m
• Spanish: pelícano (es) m
• Swahili: mwari (sw)
• Swedish: pelikan (sv) c
• Tagalog: pagala, pelikano
• Thai: กระทุง (th) (grà-tung)
• Tiwi: arlikampwarni, alikwamparni, alikampwani, arlipiwura, kipiwura, jampawunga, jintama
• Turkish: pelikan (tr)
• Turkmen: gotan
• Ukrainian: пелікан m (pelikan)
• Vietnamese: bồ nông
• Volapük: pelek
• Wardaman: jarnarran
• Welsh: pelican m or f
• Wolof: njagabaar bi (wo)
• Yagara: bulualum
• Yiddish: פּעליקאַן m (pelikan)

Anagrams

• Calpine, capelin, capline, in place, panicle, pinacle

Friulian

Noun

pelican m (plural pelicans)

1. pelican

Middle English

Noun

pelican

1. Alternative form of pellican

Occitan

Etymology

From Latin pelicānus.

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

pelican m (plural pelicans)

1. pelican (any of various seabirds of the family Pelecanidae)

Derived terms

• pelican australian
• pelican cresp
• pelican del Pero
• pelican ròsa
• pelican vulgar

Romanian

Alternative forms

• pelecan — dated

Etymology

Borrowed from French pélican, from Latin pelicānus. Compare Aromanian pilican.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pe.liˈkan/

Noun

pelican m (plural pelicani)

1. pelican (any of various seabirds of the family Pelecanidae)

Declension

Declension of pelican

	singular			plural
	indefinite	definite		indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	pelican	pelicanul		pelicani	pelicanii
genitive-dative	pelican	pelicanului		pelicani	pelicanilor
vocative	pelicanule			pelicanilor

Derived terms

• pelican comun
• pelican creț
• pelicanol

Related terms

• pelecaniforme

See also

• steganipod

References

• “pelican”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2025

Welsh

Etymology

Borrowed from English pelican.

Noun

pelican m (plural pelicanod)

1. pelican (seabird of the family Pelecanidae)

   Synonym: pelig

Derived terms

• croesfan pelican (“pelican crossing”)
• pelican Dalmatia (“Dalmatian pelican”)
• pelican gwyn (“great white pelican”)
• pelican gwyn America (“American white pelican”)

Mutation

Mutated forms of pelican

radical	soft	nasal	aspirate
pelican	belican	mhelican	phelican

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.