▪ I. porpoise, n.
(ˈpɔːpəs, -pɔɪs)
Forms: see below.
[ME. porpays, -peys, -poys, a. OF. porpeis (12–13th c. in Godef.), porpais, -pois (Norman dial. of Guernsey pourpeis) = L. type *porcus piscis, lit. hog-fish or fish-hog: cf. OIt. pesce porco, Pg. peixe porco = L. type *piscis porcus. In cl. L. porcus marīnus (Pliny) = sea-hog, whence It. porco marino, Sp. puerco marino; cf. also Ger. meerschwein ‘sea-swine’, whence mod.F. marsouin. In Eng. the first element varied in 14–16th c. with pur- (Caxton pour-); the second element had many variations. In 17th c. there was an attempt to Latinize both elements as porc- or porcu-pisce, pl. -pisces; in the 18th c. porpus was prevalent; Johnson has porpoise, porpus; in the 19th c. usually written porpoise and pronounced porpus.]
1. a. A small cetaceous mammal (Phocæna communis) about five feet in length, of a blackish colour above and paler beneath, having a blunt rounded snout not produced into a ‘beak’ as the dolphin's. Hence extended to other species of the genus Phocæna, and to various small cetaceans of the family Delphinidæ. (Formerly also as collective pl.)
bay porpoise or skunk porpoise, a larger North American porpoise of the genus Lagenorhynchus, distinguished by wide bands of yellow and white along its sides.
(α) 4 porpayse, 4–5 -pays, -poys, 4–6 -pas, 5 -peys, -e, -pys, 5–6 -pes, 6 -passe, -pose, -pyse, -pyshe, 6–9 -pesse, 7 -paise -piece, -pois, -poce, -puis, -puise, -pisce, 7–8 -pess, -pos, -pice, 9 -pass; 6–9 porpus, 6– porpoise.
| 1309–10 Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 7, j porpas. 1324–5 Ibid. 14, j porpayse et cc Haddoks. 1329 Acc. Chamberl. Scotl. (1771) 7 In emptione unius porpoys, 5 s. ? c 1390 Form of Cury §108 Porpeys in broth. 1530 Palsgr. 256/2 Porpas a fysshe, mersovyn. c 1532 G. Du Wes Introd. Fr. in Palsgr. 913 Porpasse, daulphin. 1533 Elyot Cast. Helthe (1539) 69 b, Greatte fyshes of the see, as thurle⁓pole, porpyse and sturgeon. 1541 Act 33 Hen. VIII, c. 2 Sturgeon porpose or seale. 1542 Boorde Dyetary xiii. (1870) 268 A young porpesse, the whiche kynde of fysshe is nother praysed in the olde testament nor in physycke. 1552 Huloet, Porpyshe fyshe. 1590 Greene Never too late (1600) 63 Neither flesh nor fish as the Porpus. 1601 Holland Pliny I. 241 The Porpuisses..are made like the Dolphins. 1612 Drayton Poly-olb. v. 80 Wallowing Porpice sport and lord it in the flood. 1628 Digby Voy. Mediterran. (1868) 9, I neuer yet saw store of porposes playing, but soone a storme ensewed. 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 213 Porpiece. 1657 R. Ligon Barbadoes 28 Fishes..over⁓grown with fat, as you have seen Porpisces. 1661 Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. 217 Porpaise... Tursions or Sea Hoggs are fatter than Dolphins. 1687 A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. ii. 6 A Porpess..taken with a Fish-gig above Malta. 1698 Tyson in Phil. Trans. XX. 128 The Dolphin and Porpois. 1700 W. King Transactioneer 48 He had the Misfortune to be Scratched by the Tooth of a Porpos. 1709 T. Robinson Vind. Mosaick Syst. 45 Porpices..which delight in sporting and playing upon the waves. 1727 Philip Quarll 59 A great number of Porpuses. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) VI. 329 There the porpess and the shark continue their depredations. 1802 Bingley Anim. Biog. (1813) II. 16 The Porpesse is well known in all the European seas. 1835 J. Neal Bro. Jonathan III. 416 Throwing up the water, like a porpass, in a gale o' wind. 1834 M{supc}Murtrie Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. 111 The Porpoise has no rostrum, but a short and uniformly convex muzzle. 1837 M. Donovan Dom. Econ. II. 193 The grand shoal..of which the arrival is announced by the number of its greedy attendants, the gannet, the gull, the shark, and the porpus. |
(β) 4–5 purpays, 5 -peys, -paysse, -poys, pourpays, 5–6 purpose.
| 1400–1 Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 603 Famulo..portanti j purpays. c 1440 Anc. Cookery in Househ. Ord. (1790) 427 Make the nombuls of purpoys. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 417/1 Purpeys, fysche. c 1460 J. Russell Bk. Nurture 724 Purpose rosted on coles. c 1483 Caxton Dialogues 12/2 Fro the see to you come Whales, pourpays [F. Balainnes, porc de mer]. 1586 Bright Melanch. vi. 27 The Monsters of the sea..are ceals purposes and such like. |
(γ) 6 pork pisce, porkepes, 6–7 porcpisce, 7 porcpis, porkpisce, porcupisce, -pice, -pise, porcipize, porc'pisce.
| 1565 Golding Ovid's Met. i. (1593) 10 The ugly seales and pork pisces now to and fro did flote. 1595 Spenser Colin Clout 251 His heard Of stinking Seales and Porcpisces. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage viii. iii. 739 A great dead fish, round like a Porcpis. 1654 Gayton Pleas. Notes iii. 67 A Sturgeon, a Sea-Calfe, a Porcipize. 1661 Feltham Low Countries in Resolves, etc. 60 The people that thrive and grow rich by war, like the Porcpisce, that playes in the storm. 1678 Dryden All for Love iv. i, Her Eunuch there! That Porc'pisce bodes ill Weather. 1684 O'Flaherty W. Connaught (Irish Arch. Soc.) 105 Eighteen porcupices..were taken near Tombeola. |
b. attrib. and Comb., as porpoise beef, porpoise diving (hence porpoise-dive v. intr.), porpoise hide, porpoise lace, porpoise oil, porpoise skin; porpoise-like adj. and adv.
| a 1533 Ld. Berners Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546) N vj, His shooes of a porkepes skynne. 1555 Eden Decades 351 This cape may be easely knowen, by reason the rysynge of it is lyke a porpose hedde. 1618 Breton Courtier & Country-Man (Grosart) 14/1 A great man..sent him for a great dainty a Porpose Pye or two cold. 1651 Davenant Gondibert i. xxxi, The Prince, could Porpoise-like in Tempests play. 1833 W. F. Tolmie Jrnl. 21 Jan. (1963) 97 Ate some porpoise beef at breakfast. 1884 C. G. W. Lock Workshop Receipts Ser. iii. 376/1 Some find porpoise-oil to give most uniform satisfaction [for lubricating a watch]. 1894 Outing (U.S.) XXIV. 123/1 The oild porpoise-hide thigh-boots. 1898 F. T. Bullen Cruise Cachalot 19 Porpoise beef improves vastly by keeping. 1905 Westm. Gaz. 26 Aug. 9/2 The ‘Plunger’ was put through her paces at porpoise diving, ascending repeatedly to the surface, long enough to get her bearings, and immediately disappearing again. 1973 V. Canning Flight of Grey Goose vii. 138 He..took a deep breath, and porpoise-dived down, swimming strongly. |
2. (See quots.)
| 1929 F. C. Bowen Sea Slang 105 Porpoise, doing a, said when a submarine dives down nose first at a sharp angle. 1931 Times 21 Aug. 7/1 It [sc. a seaplane] dropped back on to the water and then porpoised again, double the height of the first porpoise. 1961 F. H. Burgess Dict. Sailing 74 Doing a porpoise, said of a submarine taking a sharp dive. 1963 Amer. Speech XXXVIII. 119 Porpoise, an undesired landing in which the airplane bobs up and down like a porpoise playing in the waves, caused by landing on the nose gear first. |
▪ II. porpoise, v.
(ˈpɔːpəs)
[f. the n.]
intr. To move like a porpoise; spec. a. Of an aircraft, esp. a seaplane: to touch the water or the ground and rise again. b. To move through the water like a porpoise, alternately rising above it and submerging.
| 1909 H. G. Wells Tono-Bungay i. iii. 110 ‘Just as though an old Porpoise like him would ever make money,’ she said... ‘He'll just porpoise about.’ 1919 Rep. & Mem. Advisory Comm. Aeronaut. No. 437. 6 The author has seen a machine..porpoise very badly in waves of only one to two feet high. 1930 P. White How to fly Airplane xiv. 216 Sometimes, students fail to level off at all. This is an error which is bound to result either in a crash, or in a ‘wheel’ landing from which the plane will bounce or ‘porpoise’ quite high. 1931 [see porpoise n. 2]. 1939 G. H. Jones No less Renowned 46 The Coxswain and the Second Coxswain had their work cut out to prevent the vessel [sc. a submarine] from ‘porpoising’. 1944 Richmond (Virginia) Times-Dispatch 21 Sept. 6/6 The Liberator [bomber]..touched the water at a speed of approximately 100 miles per hour, porpoised (bounced) once, and struck again tail-first. 1968 F. W. Holiday Great Orm of Loch Ness v. 39 These objects were moving south-west... They were ‘porpoising’—rolling under the surface and then reappearing. 1969 D. Bagley Spoilers vii. 206 I've set her [sc. a torpedo] to run at twelve feet. Any less than that an' she's likely to porpoise—jump in an' out o' the water. 1976 Province (Vancouver) 8 Mar. 1/3 From 500 feet there appeared an island full of seals and an ocean full of an enormous whale porpoising through his domain before diving out of sight. 1977 Modern Boating (Austral.) Jan. 34/2 With the trim..right out the boat begins to porpoise badly. |
So ˈporpoising vbl. n.
| 1915 G. C. Loening Military Aeroplanes xi. 134 The latter condition, causing sudden changes in the angle of the bottom and its planing pressure,..gives rise to the disagreeable effect of ‘porpoising’—a fore and aft rocking and jumping. 1920 L. Bairstow Appl. Aerodynamics ii. 55 Such phenomena as the depression of the bow due to switching on the engine and ‘porpoising’ are reproduced in the model with sufficient accuracy for the phenomena to be kept under control in the design stages of a flying boat. 1933 [see hydrofoil 1]. 1974 P. Lovesey Invitation to Dynamite Party xii. 152 We have to steer by coming to the surface at intervals. It's a process known as ‘porpoising’. |