DCHP-1 Online
penguin [ ? < Breton " white head " (cf. Welsh pen head, headland + gwyn white), in reference to an island; see 1578 quote] Obs. 
1 n. the now-extinct great auk, Alca impennis, once found in vast numbers in Newfoundland coastal islands.
- 1578 (1883) [In about two months sailing they fell in with Cape Breton--from thence they sail'd N.E. to Penguin Island which is very full of Rockes and stones and great Birds white and gray colour as big as Geese.]
- 1620 The Penguines are as bigge as Geese, and flye not, for they haue but a little short wing, and they multiply so infinitly, vpon a certaine flat Iland, that men driue them from thence vopn a boord, into their boates by hundreds at a time.
- 1819 They were known by the name of penguins, according to some writers from the Welsh, in which language the word signifies white-head, the penguin having a remarkable white spot on one side of its otherwise black head.
- 1958 "Penguins," as our great auks were called, were chased to extermination.
2 n. the common cormorant.
- 1959 Common Cormorant . . . penguin. (This term, applied to the Great Auk, has, since the extermination of that bird, been given to a variety of the larger sea fowl. Nfld.)
3 n.
See also: Penguin
- 1578 (1883) [In about two months sailing they fell in with Cape Breton--from thence they sail'd N.E. to Penguin Island which is very full of Rockes and stones and great Birds white and gray colour as big as Geese.]