porpoise

English

Etymology

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.

Pronunciation

(UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɔːpəs/, /pɔːˈpɔɪs/
(US) IPA^(key): /ˈpɔːɹpəs/
Audio (US): (file)
Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)pəs, -ɔɪs

Noun

English Wikipedia has an article on:

porpoise

Wikipedia

porpoise (plural porpoises)

A small cetacean of the family Phocoenidae, related to dolphins and whales.
Synonyms: garfish, mereswine, sea hog, sea pig, seaswine
- 1991, Kaiya Zhou, Zhang Xingduan, translated by Luo Changyan, Baiji: The Yangtze River Dolphin and Other Endangered Animals of China‎^[1], →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 76:
  They captured 25 porpoises and set them free back into the Yangtze after raising them for a month in Puqi County, Hubei.
(Canada, US, imprecisely) Any small dolphin.

Hypernyms

mereswine

Derived terms

Translations

cetacean

Abkhaz: please add this translation if you can
Albanian: marsuinët
Arabic: خِنْزِير الْبَحْر m (ḵinzīr al-baḥr)
Armenian: ծովախոզ (hy) (covaxoz)
Asturian: botu (ast), boticu (ast), moscote (ast)
Belarusian: марска́я свіння́ f (marskája svinnjá)
Breton: morhoc'h m
Bulgarian: тъпонос делфин m (tǎponos delfin)
Catalan: marsopa (ca) f
Cherokee: ᏗᏁᏍᏆᏕᎩᏳᏍᏗ (dinesquadegiyusdi)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 鼠海豚 (zh) (shǔhǎitún)
Cornish: morhogh m
Czech: sviňucha (cs) f
Dutch: bruinvis (nl) m
Esperanto: foceno
Faroese: nísa f
Finnish: pyöriäinen (fi)
French: marsouin (fr) m
Galician: fouliña f, touliña f, toniña (gl) f, porco de mar m
Georgian: დელფინი (delpini) (also dolphin), ზღვის ღორი (zɣvis ɣori)
German: Tümmler m, Schweinswal (de) m
Greek: γουρουνόψαρο n (gourounópsaro)
Ancient: φώκαινα f (phṓkaina)
Hindi: सूंस m (sūns)
Hungarian: (Phocoenidae) disznódelfin (hu), (Phocoena phocoena, harbour porpoise) barna delfin
Icelandic: hnísa (is) f, marsvín (is) n
Irish: muc mhara m
Italian: focena (it) f
Japanese: ネズミイルカ (ja) (nezumiiruka)
Khmer: សមុទ្រសុករ (sak mut su kak rak)
Klallam: k'ʷánət'
Korean: 쇠돌고래 (soedolgorae), 돌고래 (ko) (dolgorae)
Lao: ເດິນຟິນໜູ (dœn fin nū)
Laz: please add this translation if you can
Lithuanian: jūrų kiaulė f (in most cases)
Low German:
German Low German: Trömmelswien n, Dümmler m
Macedonian: мо́рска сви́ња f (mórska svínja)
Maori: tūpoupou
Mari:
Eastern Mari: вӱд сӧсна (vüd sösna)
Middle English: porpeys, mereswyn
Navajo: tééh hóyáanii
Nootka: hicwin
Norman: pourpais m
Norwegian:
Bokmål: nise m or f

Nynorsk: nise f
Old English: mereswīn n
Old Norse: hnísa f
Ottoman Turkish: طوڭوز بالغی (doñuz balığı), یونس بالغی (yunus balığı)
Persian: گرازماهی (gorâzmâhi), خوک‌ماهی (xuk-mâhi)
Plautdietsch: Mäaschwien n
Polish: morświn (pl) m
Portuguese: toninha (pt) f
Romanian: marsuin (ro) m
Romansch: balena-portg f
Russian: морска́я свинья́ (ru) f (morskája svinʹjá)
Scots: dunter
Scottish Gaelic: peileag f, puthag f, cana (gd) m
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: плискавица f, морско прасе n

Roman: pliskavica (sh) f, morsko prase (sh) n
Slovak: sviňucha f
Slovene: pliskavka f
Spanish: marsopa (es) f
Swahili: poposi
Swedish: tumlare (sv) c
Tagalog: marsopa
Telugu: నీరుపంది (te) (nīrupandi)
Thai: พอร์พอยส์ (pɔɔ-pɔ́is)
Turkish: musur
Ukrainian: морська́ свиня́ f (morsʹká svynjá)
Vietnamese: cá heo (vi)
Welsh: llamhidydd (cy) m, morhwch f
Wolof: piipa bi

imprecisely, any small dolphin

Finnish: delfiini (fi)
Swedish: tumlare (sv) c

Verb

porpoise (third-person singular simple present porpoises, present participle porpoising, simple past and past participle porpoised)

(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.
- 1979, J.G. Ballard, The Unlimited Dream Company, chapter 15:
  Urging them to join me, I raced in circles through the surging water, chased my tail for the children, blew spouts of foam through the sunfilled spray, porpoised to and fro across the river in shallow leaps that stitched the air and water into a table-lace of foam.
(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.
Synonym: (of an aircraft) balloon