Category:Whale

Whale, n. Etym: [oe. whal, as. hwæl; akin to d. walvisch, g. wal, Walfisch, ohg. wal, icel. hvalr, dan. & sw. hval, hvalfisk. Cf. Narwhal, walrus.] (zoöl.)

Defn: any aquatic mammal of the order cetacea, especially any one of The large species, some of which become nearly one hundred feet long. Whales are hunted chiefly for their oil and baleen, or whalebone.

Note: the existing whales are divided into two groups: the toothed Whales (odontocete), including those that have teeth, as the Cachalot, or sperm whale (see sperm whale); and the baleen, or Whalebone, whales (mysticete), comprising those that are destitute of Teeth, but have plates of baleen hanging from the upper jaw, as the Right whales. The most important species of whalebone whales are the Bowhead, or greenland, whale (see illust. of right whale), the biscay Whale, the antarctic whale, the gray whale (see under gray), the Humpback, the finback, and the rorqual. Whale bird. (zoöl.) (a) any One of several species of large antarctic petrels which follow Whaling vessels, to feed on the blubber and floating oil; especially, Prion turtur (called also blue petrel), and pseudoprion desolatus. (b) the turnstone; -- so called because it lives on the carcasses of Whales. [canada] -- whale fin (com.), whalebone. Simmonds. -- whale fishery, the fishing for, or occupation of taking, whales. -- whale louse (zoöl.), any one of several species of degraded Amphipod crustaceans belonging to the genus cyamus, especially c. Ceti. They are parasitic on various cetaceans. -- whale's bone, ivory. [obs.] -- whale shark. (zoöl.) (a) the Basking, or liver, shark. (b) a very large harmless shark (rhinodon Typicus) native of the indian ocean. It sometimes becomes sixty feet Long. -- whale shot, the name formerly given to spermaceti. -- whale's tongue (zoöl.), a balanoglossus.

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---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary

Whale - The Hebrew word tan (plural, tannin) is so rendered in Job 7:12 (A.V.; but R.V., "sea-monster"). It is rendered by "dragons" in Deuteronomy 32:33; Psalms 91:13; Jeremiah 51:34; Psalms 74:13 (marg., "whales;" and marg. of R.V., "sea-monsters"); Isaiah 27:1; and "serpent" in Exodus 7:9 (R.V. marg., "any large reptile," and so in Exodus 7:10, Exodus 7:12). The words of Job (Job 7:12), uttered in bitter irony, where he asks, "Am I a sea or a whale?" simply mean, "Have I a wild, untamable nature, like the waves of the sea, which must be confined and held within bounds, that they cannot pass?" "The serpent of the sea, which was but the wild, stormy sea itself, wound itself around the land, and threatened to swallow it up... Job inquires if he must be watched and plagued like this monster, lest he throw the world into disorder" (Davidson's Job). The whale tribe are included under the general Hebrew name tannin (Genesis 1:21; Lamentations 4:3). "Even the sea-monsters [tanninim] draw out the breast." The whale brings forth its young alive, and suckles them. It is to be noticed of the story of Jonah's being "three days and three nights in the whale's belly," as recorded in Matthew 12:40, that here the Gr. ketos means properly any kind of sea-monster of the shark or the whale tribe, and that in the book of Jonah (Jonah 1:17) it is only said that "a great fish" was prepared to swallow Jonah. This fish may have been, therefore, some great shark. The white shark is known to frequent the Mediterranean Sea, and is sometimes found 30 feet in length.