porpoise

Meaning

Noun

1. Any small cetacean of the family Phocoenidae, related to dolphins and whales.
2. (Canada, US) Any small dolphin.

Verb

1. (intransitive) Said of an air-breathing aquatic animal such as a porpoise or penguin: To repeatedly jump out of the water to take a breath and dive back in a continuous motion.
2. (intransitive) Said of an aircraft: to make a series of plunges when taking off or landing; or of a watercraft: to successively plunge up and down in the water.

Synonyms

dolphin

🐬

make wheelies

mereswine

harbour porpoise

jump up

leap

bucking

large fish

sea hog

harbor porpoise

common porpoise

cow-fish

herring hog

grampus

guinea pig

Translations

marsouin

marsopa

focena

Schweinswal

bruinvis

Tümmler

toninha

marsopa

boto

delfín

🐬

dauphin

🐬

delfim

🐬

Gewöhnlicher Schweinswal

dolfijn

🐬

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈpɔːpəs/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: porpeys

Cognate with Italian: pesce porco

Cognate with Portuguese: peixe porco

Cognate with Latin: porcus marinus

Cognate with German: Meerschwein

Cognate with English: mereswine

In summary

From Middle English porpeys, purpeys, borrowed from Anglo-Norman porpeis, purpeis, Old French pourpois, porpois, pourpais, porpeis (“porpoise”), from Vulgar Latin *porcopiscis (“porpoise”, literally “pig-fish”), from Latin porcus (“pig”) + piscis (“fish”). Compare (in transposed order) obsolete Italian pesce porco and Portuguese peixe porco; also Latin porcus marinus (“sea hog”), akin in formation to German Meerschwein, English mereswine. More at mereswine.