porpoise

English

Phocoena phocoena (1)

Etymology

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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɔːpəs/, /pɔːˈpɔɪs/
• IPA^(key): /ˈpɔːɹpəs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)pəs, -ɔɪs

Noun

porpoise (plural porpoises)

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

Synonyms

• garfish, mereswine, sea hog, sea pig, seaswine

Translations

cetacean

• Abkhaz: please add this translation if you can
• Albanian: marsuinët
• Arabic: خِنْزِير الْبَحْر m (ḵinzīr al-baḥr)
• Armenian: ծովախոզ (hy) (covaxoz)
• Belarusian: марска́я свіння́ f (marskája svinnjá)
• Catalan: marsopa (ca) f
• Cherokee: ᏗᏁᏍᏆᏕᎩᏳᏍᏗ (dinesquadegiyusdi)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 鼠海豚 (zh) (shǔhǎitún)

• Cornish: morhogh m
• Czech: sviňucha (cs) f
• Dutch: bruinvis (nl) m
• Faroese: nísa f
• Finnish: pyöriäinen (fi)
• French: marsouin (fr) m
• Galician: toniña (gl) f
• Georgian: დელფინი (delpini) (also dolphin), ზღვის ღორი (zɣvis ɣori)
• German: Tümmler m, Schweinswal (de) m
• Greek: γουρουνόψαρο n (gourounópsaro)

  Ancient Greek: please add this translation if you can

• Hindi: सूंस m (sūns)
• Hungarian: barna delfin, disznódelfin
• Icelandic: hnísa (is) f, marsvín (is) n
• Irish: muc mhara m
• Italian: focena (it) f
• Japanese: ネズミイルカ (nezumiiruka)
• Khmer: សមុទ្រសុករ (sak mut su kak rak)
• Korean: 돌고래 (ko) (dolgorae)
• Lao: ເດິນຟິນໜູ (dœn fin nū)
• Laz: please add this translation if you can
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Lithuanian: jūrų kiaulė f (in most cases)
• Macedonian: мо́рска сви́ња f (mórska svínja)
• Maori: tūpoupou
• Navajo: tééh hóyáanii
• Nootka: hicwin
• Norman: pourpais m
• Norwegian: nise f
• Old English: mereswin n
• Old Norse: hnísa f
• Persian: گرازماهی (gorāzmāhī), خوک‌ماهی (xūkmāhī)
• Polish: morświn (pl) m
• Portuguese: toninha (pt) f
• Romanian: marsuin (ro) m
• Russian: морска́я свинья́ (ru) f (morskája svinʹjá)
• Scots: dunter
• Scottish Gaelic: peileag f, puthag f, cana m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: плискавица f, морско прасе n

  Roman: pliskavica (sh) f, morsko prase (sh) n

• Slovak: sviňucha f
• Slovene: pliskavka f
• Spanish: marsopa (es) f
• Swahili: poposi
• Tagalog: marsopa
• Telugu: నీరుపంది (te) (nīrupandi)
• Thai: พอร์พอยส์ (pɔɔ-pɔ́is)
• Turkish: musur
• Ukrainian: морська́ свиня́ f (morsʹká svynjá)
• Vietnamese: cá heo (vi)
• Welsh: llamhidydd (cy) m
• Wolof: piipa bi

imprecisely, any small dolphin

• Finnish: delfiini (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Swedish: tumlare (sv) c

Verb

1. (intransitive) Said of an air-breathing aquatic animal such as a porpoise or penguin: To repeatedly jump out of the water to take a breath and dive back in a continuous motion.
   • 1979, J.G. Ballard, The Unlimited Dream Company, chapter 15:

     Urging them to join me, I raced in circles through the surging water, chased my tail for the children, blew spouts of foam through the sunfilled spray, porpoised to and fro across the river in shallow leaps that stitched the air and water into a table-lace of foam.

2. (intransitive) Said of an aircraft: to make a series of plunges when taking off or landing; or of a watercraft: to successively plunge up and down in the water.

See also

• dolphin
• killer whale
• pod
• sea lion
• seal
• whale
• Appendix:English collective nouns