seagull

Etymology

It is formed from English sea + gull.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The bird name, recorded from the early 15th century, is probably from a Brythonic Celtic language: Etymonline compares Welsh gwylan, Cornish guilan and Breton goelann, all from Proto-Celtic *voilenno-.^[3] It replaced Old English mæw, the ancestor of mew.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A gull: 1542, in a manuscript of the Duke of Rutland published by the Historical Manuscripts Commission.^[2] Merriam-Webster also gives 1542,^[7] Etymonline the 1540s^[3] and Dictionary.com 1535–45.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) defined it as "a water fowl" and quoted Bacon, who held that seagulls flying in from the sea to the shore foretell rain and wind.^[6] In New Zealand and Australian slang a seagull has been a casual dock worker who does not belong to the union since about 1926, apparently because such workers were seen as migratory;^[2][8][9] the verbal noun seagulling means doing such work.^[8] American slang used it in the 1960s for a constant complainer and for a bettor who copies the bets of big spenders.^[10]

Timeline

• 1542 – a gull.^[2][7]
• c. 1926 – in New Zealand, a casual non-union dock worker.^[2]
• 1966 – in American slang, a bettor who copies big spenders.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A gull, especially one living by the sea.^[7][11][9]
2. (Australia and New Zealand, informal) A casual dock worker who is not a member of a trade union.^{[11][2][9][8]}

Related words

• gull
• sea
• mew

Usage notes

The bird name gull is a different word from gull, a dupe: the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins connects the latter with a dialect word for an unfledged bird,^[12] while Etymonline thinks it may come from, or be influenced by, the bird name.^[3]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
7. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c Deverson, Tony; Kennedy, Graeme, eds. (2005), The New Zealand Oxford Dictionary, Auckland: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Moore, Bruce, ed. (2004), The Australian Oxford Dictionary, 2nd ed., Melbourne: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press