14.09.2024 – “Cetymology”

Have you ever wondered where the name of your favourite Cetacean comes from? In modern English, we tend to get these names from one of three roots. Ancient Latin/Greek, Old Norse (The Viking Language), or  Old French.

Most of the true scientific terms are the Latin/Greek ones; for example, “Cetcean,” which relates to the Greek “Cetos,” or sea monster, and is an overarching term for all “whales” (including dolphins and porpoises, but more on this later). Within the cetaceans we have two groups, the toothed and baleen whales, i.e., whales with teeth and the filter feeders. Scientifically, these are the “Odontoceti” and “mysticeti.” The prefix odont simply means tooth, whereas the much stranger Mysti is either a translation error or a mispelling of the ancient Greek word for moustache! Of course the ancient Romans certainly wouldn’t have called all whales “cetos.” No, this scientific label came much later. Their lay-term for whales still exists and is used in most romance languages, including French: “Baleiene.” As mentioned, the French co-opted several Latin words for whales and in turn gifted these to English. Theyre often used as second terms, i.e., “Grampus” (literally fat fish) for Rissos Dolphin (Grampus griseus). Interestingly, Grampus was also often used for killer whales (Orcinus orca), although their true Latin name is of course simply “Orca.” Two further words that entered English from Latin via France are the names of two important families of Odontocete: dolphins (relating to the Latin word for womb due to their being young) and porpoise (literally “pigfish” seen in other languages such as “Schweinswal” in German). The Vikings did not impact scientific Cetacean terms much, but (in all Germanic languages) they massively impacted the way we speak about these animals by introducing the term “Whale” (it comes from a verb that means “to roll”). Whale is uterly non-scientific; it is used for various species, both mysticetes (Fin (Balenoptera physalus), Humpback (Megatpera noviangliae) or Blue (Balenoptera musculus) whales) and odontocetes (Sperm Whale (Phyeter macrocephalus), Beaked Whales (Ziphiidae spp.).

Here, for the sake of all whale-watching guides, we will end with a quick note. Whale is also used for members of the Dolphin family (Killer Whale) and Pilot Whale (Globicephala macrorhynchus). Many guests are quick to point out how different dolphins and “whales” are, but as we’ve explained here, they’re in fact all part of one happy, linguistically complex family. Each species is unique with its feeding, breeding, and migratory habits; therefore, please be aware that questions such as “What is the best season for whales?” or “And how is that different from whales?” are very difficult to accurately answer without an idea of which species is meant.

by Peter Worth

Sightings of the Day

Stenella

09:30 – Bottlenose Dolphins, Pilot Whales

17:00– Atlantic Spotted Dolphins

Ribeira Brava

09:30 – Bottlenose Dolphins