Back to all words

Penguin

2 stages from Welsh to English.

Today it means a flightless black-and-white seabird of the Southern Hemisphere

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

pen gwyn→penguin

'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

English · 1570s

"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

Drag to pan · scroll to zoom

Read the full story

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.