dolphin

The animal at the root of most of the word's senses. Middle English delphyn came through Latin from Greek delphís, linked to delphús, “womb”. The -ol- spelling was probably nudged by the pronunciation of French dauphin, also the name of the French heir. The borrowing displaced Old English mereswīn, “sea pig”, and mereswine, sea pig and sea goose remain synonyms for the animal.

The anglers' dolphin is a fish, and its name shares nothing with the mammal's biology. In a fishing report, a thirty-pound dolphin landed on light tackle is this one, not the sea mammal. Where readers might picture the wrong animal, mahi-mahi or dorado removes the doubt. Coryphaena hippurus is the name to use when even those might be unclear.

Calling the prince a dolphin shows what the French spelling hides: the title is the animal's name. Dolphin and dauphin are doublets, one Greek-Latin word that reached English by two roads. One road was direct, and the other passed through French. In most modern writing dauphin is the form readers expect for the title, so dolphin here reads as an older Englishing.

A separate word that only looks like the animal's name. It goes back to the 3rd Duke of Alba, duc d'Albe in French, who first built such structures in the Spanish Netherlands in the 16th century. It possibly came into English through Dutch dukdalf, with the initial duk- worn away. That sets it apart from the wharf mooring post, which descends from the animal word.

A fender that stays where it is built and takes blows meant for something else. William Tierney Clark, writing in 1852 of his suspension bridge, calls one “an ice-breaker or dolphin” raised against ice and rafts near the Pesth shore. Stephen Bleecker Luce's Seamanship (1868) applies the idea to rope, lashing it below a launch's gunwale “as a sort of permanent fender”.

One of the fish among the heraldic charges, drawn by convention rather than from life. Embowed means bent into an arch, so the usual dolphin curves head and tail toward each other, with its broad indented fin along the back. In blazon the attitude follows the noun, as in “a dolphin embowed”, and the arched form is assumed unless the blazon says otherwise.

The smallest and most landward of the mooring dolphins: a single post on a jetty, quay or beach where a bow line is made fast. Despite the similar job, it shares its origin with the animal. The offshore mooring structure, by contrast, comes from a different word altogether; see the harbor structure.

A floating mooring point, held in place by its own anchor rather than built into the shore or the seabed. Ships make fast to its ring while waiting for the tide or a berth, and several may lie across a roadstead. What sets it apart from the wharf mooring post is that it rides on the water instead of standing fixed.

Here dolphin is a piece of rope-work, unlike the buoys, posts and harbor structures that also carry the name. Plaited cordage was wound into a pad or band and set where rigging rubbed, to take the wear. A dolphin of spun yarn about the masthead is typical: when it frays, it is replaced so that the spar beneath it is not chafed through.

A weapon for close fighting at sea, useful only once two ships lay alongside each other and were grappled fast. The mass hung ready at the yardarm and was let fall straight down to break through the deck and the hull. It belongs to naval history, and it should not be confused with the rope, buoy and post dolphins of ordinary seamanship.

American market slang for a buyer who wants the allotment, not the company. Such buyers take shares at issue on the primary market and sell them almost immediately for a quick profit. Because it is slang, it suits talk among traders and financial journalism with a light touch. In formal or international writing, describe the practice plainly or explain the word on first use.