dolphin

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English dolfin, also dolphin,^[2] borrowed from Old French daulphin, also dalphin and daufin,^[3][4][5][6] from Old Occitan dalfin,^[6][7][8] from Medieval Latin dalfinus,^[3][5][6] an alteration of Latin delphīnus,^[9][3] from Ancient Greek δελφίς (delphís), genitive δελφῖνος (delphînos).^[3][5][4] The OED thinks the English vowel “o” a phonetic variant of the French “au”, and notes that Littré has Middle French doffin from the 15th century;^[10] Hoad and Ayto call dolphin an English alteration of dalphin.^[11][12] Alongside it, Middle English also had delfyn or delphin, taken straight from the Latin, which did not survive the 17th century.^[10][12][11] The Greek name is related to δελφύς (delphús, “womb”),^[5][3][4] perhaps from the animal's shape or from its bearing live young;^[4][9] Barnhart traces the word for womb to Proto-Indo-European *gʷelbʰ-.^[3] The French word also gave English dauphin, and the Greek a plant name that became delphinium.^[12][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The sea mammal: Barnhart dates dolfin to about 1350,^[3] Etymonline to the mid-14th century;^[4] the OED's first quotation is from Trevisa's translation of Higden's Polychronicon, before 1387.^[10][2] Collins dates the word to the 13th century,^[13] and Hoad has the delphin forms from then.^[11]

Semantic evolution

From the late Middle Ages the name was also used for a figure of a dolphin in art and heraldry (before 1400)^[10][2] and for the constellation Delphinus, from 1430 in Lydgate.^[10][4] Sailors applied it to the dorado, a brightly coloured fish, from the late 16th century, through confusion with the mammal;^[4][10] Johnson (1755) still called the dolphin a fish.^[14] Many objects thought to look like a dolphin took the name: the handles on early cannon (1704), a mooring buoy or mooring post (1764), and an angling hook (1854).^[10] In Kent, Sussex, Surrey and Hertfordshire dolphin was also a black aphid that blights beans, recorded from 1731.^[15][10] In Scotland the dolphin was a French gold coin in the 1450s.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 1350 – dolfin, the sea mammal.^[3]
• before 1387 – the sea mammal, in Trevisa.^[10][2]
• before 1400 – a figure of a dolphin in art or heraldry.^[10]
• 1430 – the constellation Delphinus.^[10]
• 1451 – a French gold coin current in Scotland (obsolete).^[10]
• 1626 – the dorado.^[10]
• 1704 – a handle on an early cannon.^[10]
• 1731 – a black aphid that attacks beans.^[10]
• 1764 – a mooring buoy or mooring post.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any of various small toothed whales of the family Delphinidae, with a snout drawn out into a beak: A pod of dolphins followed the ferry.^[9][13][10]
2. A river dolphin, a freshwater relative living in rivers of South America and Asia.^[13]
3. The dorado, a large brightly coloured sea fish.^[13][10]
4. (nautical) A mooring post or buoy, or a cluster of piles to which a vessel can be tied.^[10]
5. A figure of a dolphin, usually curved, in art or heraldry.^[10]
6. Dolphin: the constellation Delphinus.^[10]

Verb

1. To swim with a series of plunges, as a dolphin does.^[9]

Word family

• dolphin kick
• dolphin striker

Related words

• dauphin
• delphinium

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
13. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)