Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun An Arctic whale (Monodon monoceros) having mottled gray or whitish skin and in the male, a long spirally twisted tusk projecting forward from the left side of the head.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A cetacean, Monodon monoceros, of the family Delphinidræ and the subfamily Delphinapterinæ; the sea-unicorn, unicorn-whale, or unicorn-fish.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) An arctic cetacean (
Monodon monocerous ), about twenty feet long. The male usually has one long, twisted, pointed canine tooth, or tusk, projecting forward from the upper jaw like a horn, whence it is called alsosea unicorn ,unicorn fish , andunicorn whale . Sometimes two horns are developed, side by side.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun An
Arctic cetacean , about 20 feet (6 meters) long; themale has asingle twisted pointed canine tooth ortusk projecting forward like ahorn .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun small Arctic whale the male having a long spiral ivory tusk
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Sea, have huge teeth in their lower jaws, and in the upper only holes into which those teeth fit; others like the bottle-nose, only two teeth or so in the lower jaw; and others, like the narwhal, two straight tusks in the upper jaw, only one of which grows, and is what you call a narwhal's horn.
Madam How and Lady Why Charles Kingsley 1847
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The word narwhal came from Norweigan and meant corpse whale.
Novel Excerpt: World Fantasy | Goblin Mercantile Exchange 2007
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At Upper Navik they do the same with the narwhal, which is thought more heat-making than the seal; while the bear, to use their own expression, is 'stronger travel than all.'
The Stock-Feeder's Manual the chemistry of food in relation to the breeding and feeding of live stock Charles Alexander Cameron 1875
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The narwhal is a small species of whale, being about twenty feet long, and spotted something like an iron-gray horse.
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③ Monodon monoceros: The narwhal is a medium-sized toothed whale that lives year-round in the Arctic.
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Squid, along with octopus and bobtail squid (Rossia spp.), play an important role as prey in Arctic waters for species such as narwhal, beluga, seals, cod and Greenland halibut.
innovations-report 2010
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So for instance, I picked the “N” page on which Featherbottom visits the North Pole instead of the one where he goes to Naples or New Orleans because the North Pole is where Santa lives, and also, the illustration on the North Pole page showed an awesome narwhal with a giant cone on its head that I knew Austin would think was pretty boss.
Three awesome things I’ve discovered that that you should absolutely check out | Johnny B. Truant 2010
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Sheattie confirmed that the moment when a narwhal is preparing to dive—when it lunges out of the water one final time after several shorter arches—is not only the ideal moment to shoot a picture, but also for hunters to aim for its brain.
In the Arctic, Sleeping Soundly Sean Silcoff 2011
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I got to try narwhal skin known as "muktuk", which tasted like cod but had the consistency of rubber tire.
In the Arctic, Sleeping Soundly Sean Silcoff 2011
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Horns from several different animals, including the narwhal, have been shown around the courts of Europe as proof of the existence of the animal that no one living ever seems have seen with their own eyes.
Book Review: The Natural History of Unicorns | Fandomania 2010
moochaloocha commented on the word narwhal
ken loves narwhals. i think they are some sort of mutant whale-unicorn breed designed to take over the world.
January 30, 2007
lallafa commented on the word narwhal
Oh man they totally are whale-unicorns. Also they eat fairies. Did you know?
April 21, 2007
Prolagus commented on the word narwhal
OK, now have a look at this, and this, and this.
August 27, 2008
reesetee commented on the word narwhal
Archie! You have to love that site.
Well, you don't, really, but I do. :-)
August 27, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word narwhal
I'm having the freakiest deja vus lately. Didn't we have this very conversation somewhere, complete with links? I could have sworn it was on the narwhal page, but apparently not. *is freaked out, goes to check bacon*
August 28, 2008
rolig commented on the word narwhal
Sad about what happened to this poor creature's cousin, the nar-do-whal, in and out of prison, spawning little whals (whallets?) all over the ocean without providing any support… Eventually he developed a serious planktoning problem, but refused to get any help for it.
August 28, 2008
Prolagus commented on the word narwhal
By the way, I found those items on my coworker's desk today.
August 28, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word narwhal
Whallets? Really?!
August 28, 2008
lyuds commented on the word narwhal
The narwhal revenge toys are great, I actually saw those at the store the other day...
August 28, 2008
reesetee commented on the word narwhal
Rolig: Nar-do-whal is what I always think of when I hear this word! Haha!
August 28, 2008
rolig commented on the word narwhal
Glad you appreciated my little pun, rt.
August 28, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word narwhal
"Freebase the Magic Narwhal."
September 3, 2008
frogapplause commented on the word narwhal
Is this accurate?
According to this a group of narwhals is a group, a blessing, or a tusking. These groups are usually in between 5-10 narwhals.
November 6, 2009
seanahan commented on the word narwhal
From googling, it appears that "pod" is the more common term for narwhals. As with all of the exhaltation of larks, these are highly subjective and people like us are constantly coming up with new ones. All it takes (especially with the internet) is for someone to come up with a good one and have the meme catch on.
November 6, 2009
bilby commented on the word narwhal
blessing seems a bit wish-unicorns-were-real wistful while tusking came from someone's toddler at bedtime story.
November 6, 2009
ruzuzu commented on the word narwhal
Oh, right, it's narwhals that eat fairies. Got it.
December 12, 2009
ruzuzu commented on the word narwhal
The word narwhal always reminds me of the Pablo Neruda poem "Los Enigmas" which is quoted (sort of... in English...) toward the end of the movie Mindwalk:
You question me about the wicked tusk of the narwhal,
and I respond by describing to you
how the sea unicorn with a harpoon in it dies.
(Here's a link from YouTube).
May 15, 2010