Mollymawk

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A large oceanic seabird with long narrow wings, dark plumage, and an albatross-like appearance that inhabits southern hemisphere waters
2. A dark-plumaged seabird of the southern oceans with elongated wings and albatross-like characteristics that glides over open waters
3. A sooty-colored oceanic bird inhabiting southern seas, characterized by narrow wings and resemblance to smaller albatrosses in flight

Etymology: The name for this seabird comes from Dutch sailors, who called it "mallemok," a word built from "malle," meaning "foolish," and "mok," a term for a gull-like bird. The sense is one of mild contempt: the bird seemed witless, flapping and tumbling over the wake of ships and allowing itself to be caught. English sailors took the word over and reshaped it into "mollymawk," and the spelling drifted under the influence of German "Mallemucke," a related name for the same kind of bird. The Japanese "ahōdori," meaning "foolish bird," was applied to albatrosses in a similar way, showing that different seafaring peoples landed on the same joke about these birds.