penguin

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“
Philip Seymour Hoffman as the penguin is a great choice -- I think he and Poison Ivy would make a great team.

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Definitions (8)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. 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.
  2. noun Obsolete The great auk.

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Examples (50)

  • We heard the report I tried to hit a dangerous bird What sort of bird was it Kind of like a penguin, I'd say, but with a broader face. —  JULY, 1953 VOL
  • I hadn't seen a penguin, alive or stuffed, since I'd left Antarctica one year before. —  F ;SF; - vol 092 issue 06 - June 1997
  • A sort of a penguin, as a matter-of-fact Oh The others got their shoes carried off I see Macbeth flushed. —  180 - Return From Cormoral
  • 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 story of the eskimO and his band - the giraffe, monkey and penguin is then told across 10 wonderful, mesmerising animated episodes to each of the album's 10 tracks to form a short film about the eskimO and his plight. —  I Like Music - music news
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Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  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.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Formerly also pinguin, pengwin (cf. French pingoin, pingouin = Dutch pinguin = German pinguin = Swedish Danish pingvin, a penguin, = Russian pingvinŭ, an auk, from English): origin uncertain. According to one view from Welsh pen gwen, ‘white head,’ the name being given to the auk in ref. to the large white spot before the eye, and subsequently transferred to a penguin. According to another view, penguin or pinguin is a corruption (in some manner left unexplained) of English dial. penwing or pinwing, the pinion or outer joint of the wing of a fowl (from pen, quill, + wing): this name being supposed to have been given orig. to the great auk (in allusion to its rudimentary wings) and afterward transferred to the penguins.
  2. Also pinguin (New Latin Pinguin); origin obscure.
 

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/ˈpɛngwɪn/
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