Greenland
(ˈgriːnlənd)
[f. green a. + land n.1, ultimately after the equivalent ON. Grœ́nland, whence Sw., Da. Grönland, adopted in Du. Groenland, G. Grönland.
According to Islendingabók vi, the land was so named by its discoverer in 986 ‘because it would induce settlers to go there, if the land had a good name’.]
1. A large island or small continent to the north-east of North America. Used attrib. in Greenland dove (see dove 1 c); Greenland falcon or gerfalcon, the whitest of the gerfalcons (Falco candicans); Greenland poppy ? = Iceland poppy; Greenland turtle = Greenland dove; Greenland whale, the Arctic Right Whale (Balæna mysticetus); Greenland yard, a yard where whales are cut up and the blubber boiled, etc.
| 1678 Ray Willughby's Ornith. 326 That bird which in Holland they call the Greenland-Dove. 1797–1804 T. Bewick Birds (1847) I. 8 The Greenland Falcon, Falco Grænlandicus. 1840 Evid. Hull Docks Comm. 14 Greenland⁓yards on both sides. 1842 Brande Dict. Sci. etc., Balæna, the Greenland whale. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Greenland Dove, the puffinet, called scraber in the Hebrides. 1882 Garden 10 June 400/2 The Greenland Poppy..has a delicate odour. 1884–5 Riverside Nat. Hist. (1888) V. 201 In form the Greenland whale is the most ungraceful of mammals. 1885 Swainson Prov. Names Birds 218 Sea turtle, or Greenland turtle. 1896 R. B. Sharpe Handbk. Birds Gt. Brit. II. 191 The Greenland Gyr-falcon, Hiero⁓falco candicans. |
2. slang. The country of greenhorns.
| 1838 Dickens O. Twist viii, ‘A new pal’, replied Jack Dawkins, pulling Oliver forward. ‘Where did he come from?’ ‘Greenland’. |