whale

英 [weɪl] 美[wel]

CET4TEM4考研CET6中低频词核心词汇哺乳动物

复数: whales;

whale 鲸

来自古英语hwael,大型海洋生物，鲸，海象等，后用于指鲸。

whale: whale: [OE] Whale comes from a prehistoric Germanic *khwal-, which also produced Swedish and Danish hval and the wal- of German walfisch ‘whale’. The expression a whale of, meaning ‘no end of’, originated in the USA towards the end of the 19th century.
whale (n.): Old English hwæl "whale," also "walrus," from Proto-Germanic *hwalaz (cognates: Old Saxon hwal, Old Norse hvalr, hvalfiskr, Swedish val, Middle Dutch wal, walvisc, Dutch walvis, Old High German wal, German Wal), from PIE *(s)kwal-o- (cognates: Latin squalus "a kind of large sea fish"). Phrase whale of a "excellent or large example" is c. 1900, student slang. Whale-oil attested from mid-15c.
whale (v.2): "beat, whip severely," 1790, possibly a variant of wale (v.) "to mark with 'wales' or stripes" (early 15c.), from wale (n.). Related: Whaled; whaling.
whale (v.1): "pursue the business of whale-fishing," 1700, from whale (n.). Whale-fishing is attested from 1570s.

1. The blue whale is the largest living thing on the planet.: 蓝鲸是地球上体型最大的生物。

3. Norwegian whalers said yesterday they had harpooned a female minke whale.: 挪威的捕鲸人说昨天他们用捕鲸叉捕获了一头雌性小须鲸。

4. Whale-watching has become a growth leisure industry.: 观鲸业已经成为一个快速发展的休闲产业。