Penguin: definitions and examples of penguin

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American Heritage Dictionary (2)

noun Any of various stout flightless marine birds of the family Spheniscidae, of cool regions of the Southern Hemisphere, having flipperlike wings and webbed feet adapted for swimming and diving, and short scalelike feathers that are white in front and black on the back.
noun Obsolete The great auk.

Century Dictionary (4)

The great auk, Alca impennis; the original sense.
Any species of the family Spheniscidæ or Aptenodytidæ. (See Spheniscidæ for technical characters.) Penguins are remarkably distinguished from all other birds by the reduction of the wings to mere flippers, covered with scaly feathers (see Impennes, Squamipennes), used for swimming under water, but unfit for flight. The feathers of the upper parts have also broad flattened shafts and slight webs, being thus like scales; the feet are webbed and four-toed, though the hind toe is very short; the tail is short and stiff; the general form is stout and ungainly. On land the birds stand nearly erect and waddle clumsily, but they are agile and graceful in the water. They feed on fish and other animal food, and congregate on shore to breed in penguineries of great extent. Penguins are confined to the southern hemisphere, especially about Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope, and islands in high southern latitudes, coming nearest the equator on the west coast of South America, as in the case of Humboldt's penguin of Peru. There are more than a dozen species, referable to three leading types. Those of the genus Aptenodytes are the largest, standing about three feet high, and have a slender bill. The name Patagonian penguin, applied to these, covers two species or varieties—a larger, the emperor penguin, A. forsteri or imperator, and a smaller, A. pennanti or rex. (See emperor.) Jackass-penguins, so called from braying, are medium-sized or rather small, with stout bill, as Spheniscus demersus of South Africa and S. magellanicus of Patagonia. (See cut at Spheniscus.) None of the foregoing are crested; but the members of the genus Eudyptes (or Catarractes), as E. chrysocome or chrysolophus, known as rock-hoppers and macaronis, have curly yellow plumes on each side of the head. (See cut at Eudyptes.) Other medium-sized penguins are Pygoscelis tæniata, P. antarctica, P. antipoda, and Dasyrhamphus adeliæ. The smallest penguin, about a foot long, is Eudyptila minor of Australian and New Zealand shores. The largest, which was taller than a man usually is, is a fossil species named Palæeudyptes antarcticus, from the New Zealand Tertiary.
Papuan penguin a misnomer of Pygoscelis tæniata, a penguin of the Falklands and some other islands, but not of Papua.

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The name penguin was later, of course, transferred exclusively to its cousin in the southern hemisphere. — VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol X No 2
Philip Seymour Hoffman as the penguin is a great choice -- I think he and Poison Ivy would make a great team. — Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch
The nest of the penguin is a simple hollow in the ground, just deep enough to keep its eggs from rolling out, while the albatross raises a little hill of earth, grass, and muscles, eight or ten inches high, with the diameter of a water pail, and builds its nest on the top, whence it looks down on its next neighbors and friends None of the nests in the entire brooding-place is left vacant an instant until the eggs are hatched, and the young ones old enough to take care of themselves. — The International Monthly Magazine, Volume 5, No. 1, January, 1852
I have already explained that the penguin is an interesting link in the evolutionary chain, and the object of getting this embryo is to find out where the penguins come in. — The Worst Journey in the World Antarctic 1910-1913
We had felt that this penguin was the truest type of our region. — The Voyages of Captain Scott : Retold from the Voyage of the Discovery and Scott's Last Expedition

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View all »Etymologies (4)

American Heritage Dictionary (1)

Possibly from Welsh pen gwyn, White Head (name of an island in Newfoundland), great auk : pen, chief, head + gwynn, white; see weid- in Indo-European roots.

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View all »Definitions (8)

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