penguin

English

a penguin

Alternative forms

• pinguin (obsolete)

Etymology

Unknown origin. Possibly from Welsh pen (“head”) and gwyn (“white”), or from Latin pinguis (“fat”). See citations and the Wikipedia page.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɛŋɡwɪn/
• IPA^(key): /ˈpɪŋɡwɪn/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

penguin (plural penguins)

1. Any of several flightless sea birds, of order Sphenisciformes, found in the Southern Hemisphere, marked by their usual upright stance, walking on short legs, and (generally) their stark black and white plumage. [from 16th c.]
   • 1638, Thomas Herbert, Some Yeares Travels, I:

     Here are also birds cal'd Pen-gwins (white-head in Welch) like Pigmies walking upright, their finns or wings hanging very orderly downe like sleeves […]

2. (slang) A nun (association through appearance, because of the black and white habit).
3. (juggling) A type of catch where the palm of the hand is facing towards the leg with the arm stretched downward, resembling the flipper of a penguin.
4. A spiny bromeliad with egg-shaped fleshy fruit, .
   • 1803, Robert Charles Dallas, The History of the Maroons, London: Longman and Rees, Volume 1, Letter 4, p. 82,^[1]

     These productive patches, and the houses, were each surrounded by a fence, made of a prickly shrub, called the Pinguin, which propagates itself with great rapidity.

Related terms

Related terms

• Adelie penguin
• African penguin
• Chatham Island penguin
• chinstrap penguin
• crested penguin
• emperor penguin
• erect-crested penguin
• fairy penguin
• Fiordland penguin
• Galapagos penguin
• gentoo penguin
• Humboldt penguin

• jackass penguin
• king penguin
• little penguin
• macaroni penguin
• Magellanic penguin
• penguinery
• Ridgen's penguin
• rockhopper penguin
• royal penguin
• Snares penguin
• white-flippered penguin
• yellow-eyed penguin

Translations

flightless sea bird

• Afrikaans: pikkewyn (af)
• Albanian: pinguin (sq) m
• Arabic: بِطْرِيق m (biṭrīq)

  Egyptian Arabic: بطريق m (baṭrīq)

  Hijazi Arabic: بَطْريق m (baṭrīg)

• Armenian: պինգվին (hy) (pingvin)
• Assamese: পেঙ্গুইন (peṅguin)
• Asturian: pingüín m
• Azerbaijani: pinqvin (az)
• Basque: pinguino (eu)
• Belarusian: пінгві́н m (pinhvín)
• Bengali: পেঙ্গুইন (peṅguin)
• Bulgarian: пингви́н (bg) m (pingvín)
• Burmese: ပင်ဂွင် (my) (panggwang)
• Catalan: pingüí m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 企鵝／企鹅 (kei⁵ ngo^4-2), 企鹅 (kei⁵ ngo⁴)

  Hakka: 企鵝／企鹅, 企鹅 (khî-ngò)

  Mandarin: 企鵝／企鹅 (zh) (qǐ'é), 企鹅 (zh) (qǐ'é)

  Min Nan: 徛鵝／徛鹅 (zh-min-nan), 徛鹅 (khiā-gô), 企鵝／企鹅, 企鹅 (khì-gô)

  Wu: 企鵝／企鹅 (⁵chi-ngu), 企鹅 (qi ngu)

• Czech: tučňák (cs) m
• Danish: pingvin (da)
• Dutch: pinguïn (nl) m, vetgans (nl) f
• Erzya: эймацей (ejmaćej)
• Esperanto: pingveno (eo)
• Estonian: pingviin (et)
• Faroese: pingvin f
• Finnish: pingviini (fi)
• French: manchot (fr) m, pingouin (fr) m (informal)
• Galician: pingüín (gl) m
• Georgian: პინგვინი (ṗingvini)
• German: Pinguin (de) m
• Greek: πιγκουίνος (el) m (pigkouínos)
• Gujarati: પેંગ્વિન (peṅgvin)
• Hawaiian: manu-hele-kū
• Hebrew: פִּינְגְּוִין (he) m (pingvín)
• Hindi: पेंगुइन (peṅguin)
• Hungarian: pingvin (hu)
• Icelandic: mörgæs (is) f
• Ido: pinguino (io)
• Irish: piongain f
• Italian: pinguino (it) m
• Japanese: ペンギン (ja) (pengin), 人鳥 (じんちょう, jinchō), 企鵝 (ja) (きが, kiga)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Kazakh: пингвин (piñvin)
• Khmer: ភេនឃ្វីន (pheinkhviin)
• Korean: 펭귄 (ko) (penggwin)
• Kyrgyz: пингвин (pingvin)
• Lao: ນົກຄໍກ່ານ (nok khǭ kān), ຫ່ານຢິ່ງຢີ້ (hān ying yī)
• Latvian: pingvīns m
• Lithuanian: pingvinas (lt) m
• Low German: Pinguien m
• Macedonian: пингви́н m (pingvín)
• Malay: penguin
• Maltese: pengwin m
• Mongolian: оцон шувуу (ocon šuvuu), пингвин (pingvin)
• Nahuatl: totoxolotl
• Navajo: tsídii naʼałkʼaiʼí
• Norman: pîngouîn m
• Norwegian: pingvin m
• Pashto: پنګوين m (pangwín)
• Persian: پنگوئن (fa) (pangu'an)
• Polish: pingwin (pl) m, bezlotek m
• Portuguese: pinguim (pt) m
• Romanian: pinguin (ro) m
• Russian: пингви́н (ru) m (pingvín)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: пѝнгвӣн m

  Roman: pìngvīn (sh) m

• Slovak: tučniak m
• Slovene: pingvin (sl) m
• Spanish: pingüino (es) m
• Swedish: pingvin (sv)
• Tagalog: pingguwino
• Tajik: пингвин (pingvin)
• Tatar: пингвин (pingwin)
• Thai: เพนกวิน (pen-gwîn)
• Turkish: penguen (tr), karabat
• Turkmen: pingwin
• Ukrainian: пінгві́н m (pinhvín)
• Urdu: پنگوئن (penguin)
• Uyghur: پىنگېۋىن (pin'gëwin)
• Uzbek: pingvin (uz)
• Vietnamese: chim cánh cụt, chim cụt cánh
• Volapük: pinguen
• Welsh: pengwin m, pengwiniaid m pl
• Yiddish: פּינגווין m (pingvin)
• Yámana: ŝúŝa

Further reading

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