right whale

Meaning

Noun

• Any of certain baleen whales of the family Balaenidae, in the genera Eubalaena (genus) (three species) and Balaena (one species, the bowhead whale, also called the Greenland right whale).

Origin

• From right + whale.
• 
  The originally intended sense of right is unknown. Folk etymology states that, for various reasons, they were the "right" whales to hunt.