Talk:penguin

Spanish etymology theory

Etimology of this word is from Spanish "pingüe" (fat; fatty). During the first circumnavigation (1519-1522) led by Magellan, the Spaniards discovered penguins in the Southern Atlantic. Mistaking them for some sort of fat geese, they described them as such (gansos pingües); hence "pinguino", which has passed to other languages.

Nice theory and plausible -- apart from the fact that of course they wouldn't have "mistaken" the penguins for geese, but simply compared them to them. But at any rate there is no record of it. The earliest attestation is in English. So the two theories we have are the Welsh and the Latin/Romance/Spanish theory. 2.202.159.91 09:19, 21 September 2019 (UTC)

Great auk

Apparently, the word "penguin" originally referred to the great auk. Sources: Gaskell, Who Killed the Great Auk? (p.8); Salomon, Penguin-Pedia (p.12). Whether this means that "penguin" in English used to mean "great auk", I don't know. If it did, we should add an obsolete sense. Equinox ◑ 12:39, 30 April 2016 (UTC)

The above statement is confirmed by the abundance of puffins on Anglesey Island that had been part of the mainland; and PENGUIN was used for the great auk. Andrew H. Gray 10:41, 20 December 2018 (UTC)Andrew talk

I've managed to find some citations and have added the sense. - -sche (discuss) 20:50, 25 January 2020 (UTC)