penguin
Pluralpenguins
- 1A flightless sea bird of the Southern Hemisphere, marked by an upright stance, short legs for walking, and usually stark black and white plumage.
Emperor penguins huddle together to survive the Antarctic winter.
A lone penguin waddled toward the water's edge.
Note
Herbert's picture of birds walking upright "like Pigmies," their wings "hanging very orderly downe like sleeves," is the image that later senses of the word keep borrowing.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Herbert compares the upright birds to Pigmies. en.wiktionary.org
- Herbert describes their wings using the quoted sleeve comparison. en.wiktionary.org
- 2A woman belonging to a religious order; a nun.
A pair of penguins from the convent visited the sick ward each morning.
Sister Agnes was the strictest penguin in the whole convent school, with a ruler in one hand and a rosary in the other.
Note
In The Blues Brothers (1980), Elwood moves between "the penguin" and the ordinary "nun" within a few lines, which shows how the pair works.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The Blues Brothers was released in 1980. en.wikipedia.org
- Elwood uses both penguin and nun within a few lines of dialogue. dailyscript.com
- 3A northern-hemisphere sea bird of the auk kind, sometimes specifically the great auk.
This last species of penguin, or auk, seems to be the same with the alca cirrhata of Dr. Pallis, Spicileg. Zool. Fasc. v. p. 7. tab. i. & v. fig. 1–3. F.
1772, “Account of the Settlement of the Malouines”, in The Gentleman's and London MagazineMore than a hundred years ago, for example, was seen the last of the great wingless penguins or auks, which early writers quaintly called " wobble-birds."
1885, Journal of the American Geographical Society of New YorkNote
Older natural history uses the word for northern birds of the auk kind, often glossing it in the same breath. The Gentleman's and London Magazine of 1772 writes of "this last species of penguin, or auk." The Journal of the American Geographical Society of New York in 1885 recalls "the great wingless penguins or auks." When an old text puts penguins in the North Atlantic, read auk. Today the word belongs only to the southern flightless birds.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 6 facts
- Older English used penguin for northern auks, including the great auk. en.wiktionary.org
- The Gentleman's and London Magazine contains the quoted wording in 1772. en.wiktionary.org
- The wording of the 1772 quotation is accurate. darwin-online.org.uk
- The Journal of the American Geographical Society of New York contains the quoted phrase in 1885. en.wiktionary.org
- Northern waters alone do not establish that meaning: Galápagos penguins also live north of the equator. The historical context must establish whether auk is intended. galapagosconservation.org.uk
- Modern penguins live chiefly in the Southern Hemisphere; the Galápagos penguin also occurs north of the equator. galapagosconservation.org.uk
Less common meanings
- 4A member of the air force who works on the ground rather than flying aircraft.
- 5A catch made with the arm held straight down at the side and the hand twisted so the palm faces upward and the fingers point outward, resembling a penguin's flipper.
- 6A spiny bromeliad bearing egg-shaped, fleshy fruit, known botanically as Bromelia pinguin.
These productive patches, and the houses, were each surrounded by a fence, made of a prickly shrub, called the Pinguin, which propagates itself with great rapidity.
1803, Robert Charles Dallas, The History of the Maroons
Practice
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Origin
No one is certain where the word comes from. It is first recorded in the 16th century for the Northern Hemisphere auk and was later used for the Southern Hemisphere birds that look somewhat like it. One possibility is Welsh pen ("head") plus gwyn ("white"), and another is Latin pinguis ("fat").