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Penguin

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pen⋅guin

  [peng-gwin, pen-]
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–noun Ornithology.
1. any of several flightless, aquatic birds of the family Spheniscidae, of the Southern Hemisphere, having webbed feet and wings reduced to flippers.
2. Obsolete. great auk.
Origin:
1570–80; orig. uncert.; perh. < Welsh pen gwyn lit., white head (referring to the great auk in its winter plumage); later misapplied to the Spheniscidae
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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pen·guin   (pěng'gwĭn, pěn'-)   
n.  

  1. Any of various stout flightless marine birds of the family Spheniscidae, of cool regions of the Southern Hemisphere, having flipperlike wings and webbed feet adapted for swimming and diving, and short scalelike feathers that are white in front and black on the back.

  2. Obsolete The great auk.


[Possibly from Welsh pen gwyn, White Head (name of an island in Newfoundland), great auk : pen, chief, head + gwynn, white; see weid- in Indo-European roots.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

penguin 
1578, originally used of the great auk of Newfoundland (now extinct), shift in meaning to the Antarctic bird (which looks something like it, found by Drake in Magellan's Straits in 1578) is from 1588. Of unknown origin, though often asserted to be from Welsh pen "head" + gwyn "white" (see Gwendolyn). The great auk had a large white patch between its bill and eye. The Fr. and Breton versions of the word are ult. from English. The book publishing company of this name is from 1935.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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