penguin

Where does the word "penguin" come from? It comes from Welsh pen gwyn, and was adopted directly into English (1570s).

Penguin’s story begins in Welsh: pen gwyn meant “white head.” 'white head', a long-proposed but disputed source (the great auk it first named had a black head with white patches); Latin pinguis 'fat' is another guess. It reached English by 1570s as penguin. First used for the great auk of the North Atlantic; Francis Drake's crew ate 'penguins' near the Strait of Magellan in 1578, moving the name south, and the great auk was hunted to extinction in 1844. Today, penguin means a flightless black-and-white seabird of the Southern Hemisphere.

1. Stage 1 · Welsh · 1500s pen gwyn "white head", 'white head', a long-proposed but disputed source (the great auk it first named had a black head with white patches); Latin pinguis 'fat' is another guess.
2. Stage 2 · English · 1570s penguin "great auk; southern seabird", first used for the great auk of the North Atlantic; Francis Drake's crew ate 'penguins' near the Strait of Magellan in 1578, moving the name south, and the great auk was hunted to extinction in 1844.