baleen









baleen


noun

  1. whalebone(def 1).

noun

  1. whalebone
n.

early 14c., “whalebone,” from Old French balaine (12c.) “whale, whalebone,” from Latin ballaena, from Greek phallaina “whale” (apparently related to phallos “swollen penis,” probably because of a whale’s shape), from PIE root *bhel- (2) “to blow, inflate, swell” (see bole). Klein writes that the Greek to Latin transition was “through the medium of the Illyrian language, a fact which explains the transition of Gk. -ph- into Latin -b- (instead of -p-).”

  1. A flexible horny substance hanging in fringed plates from the upper jaw of baleen whales. It is used to strain plankton from seawater when feeding. Also called whalebone
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