porpoise

Meanings

Noun

• A small cetacean of the family Phocoenidae, related to dolphins and whales.
• Any small dolphin.

Verb

• 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.
• 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.

Origin

• From Middle English porpeys, purpeys, borrowed from Anglo-Norman porpeis, purpeis, Old French pourpois, porpois, pourpais, porpeis, from Vulgar Latin *porcopiscis ("porpoise"), from Latin porcus ("pig") + piscis. 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.