Etymology

whale

W4H4A1L1E1

Today it means: Any large cetacean, usually with the exclusion of dolphins and porpoises. Full definition →

Middle English whal ← Old English hwæl ← Proto-West Germanic *hwal
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whale · noun, verb1

  1. Proto-Indo-European*(s)kʷálos
  2. Proto-Germanic*hwalaz
  3. Proto-West Germanic*hwal
  4. Old Englishhwæl
  5. Middle Englishwhal
  6. English todaywhale

From Middle English whal, whale, from Old English hwæl (“whale”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwal, from Proto-Germanic *hwalaz (“whale”) (compare German Wal, Swedish val, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål hval, Norwegian Nynorsk kval; compare also Dutch walvis, West Frisian walfisk, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kʷálos (“sheatfish”) (compare German Wels, Latin squalus (“big sea fish”), Old Prussian kalis, Ancient Greek ἄσπαλος (áspalos), Avestan 𐬐𐬀𐬭𐬀 (kara, “kind of fish”)).

whale · verb2

Uncertain. Perhaps a variant of wale influenced by whack, whap, etc.

Words from the same roots

Old Englishhwæl all →

Whall

Proto-Indo-European*(s)kʷálos all →

wels

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.