# pelican
## English
### Alternative forms

* pelecan (archaic)

### Etymology

From Middle English pellican, pellicane, from Old English pellican (“pelican”), from Latin pelecānus, from Ancient Greek πελεκάν (pelekán), πέλεκυς (pélekus, “hatchet”).

### Pronunciation

* (UK, US) IPA: /ˈpɛl.ɪ.kən/, /ˈpɛl.ə.kən/
* Audio (US):(file)

### Noun

pelican (plural pelicans)
* Any of various seabirds of the family Pelecanidae, having a long bill with a distendable pouch.
** 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter III, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 54:The old have outlived that mental world we so misname in calling it a world of enjoyment;—they have outlived the feverish dreams which waste those keen hopes—the pelicans of the heart, feeding on the life-blood of their parent;—they have now no part in the excitement of success, whether in its desire or disappointment.
** 1981, Gene Wolfe, chapter VIII, in The Claw of the Conciliator (The Book of the New Sun; 2), New York: Timescape, →ISBN, page 71:Pelicans fly below us with stiffly formal strokes, and gulls wheel and keen.
* A native or resident of the American state of Louisiana.
* (chemistry, obsolete) A retort or still having a curved tube or tubes leading back from the head to the body for continuous condensation and redistillation.
* (dentistry) A set of forceps used to force overcrowded teeth apart.
    Synonym: dental pelican

#### Derived terms

* Australian pelican
* brown pelican
* dental pelican
* pelican crossing
* pelican eel
* pelican flower
* pelican gulper
* Pelican Island
* pelicanist
* pelicanlike
* pelican pot
* pelican spider
* Pelican State
* spot-billed pelican

#### Translations
### Anagrams

* Calpine, capelin, capline, in place, panicle, pinacle

## Friulian
### Noun

pelican m (plural pelicans)
* pelican

## Middle English
### Noun

pelican
* Alternative form of pellican

## Occitan
### Etymology

From Latin pelicānus.

### Pronunciation

* Audio:(file)

### Noun

pelican m (plural pelicans)
* pelican (any of various seabirds of the family Pelecanidae)

#### Derived terms

* pelican australian
* pelican cresp
* pelican del Pero
* pelican ròsa
* pelican vulgar

## Romanian
### Alternative forms

* pelecan — dated

### Etymology

Borrowed from French pélican, from Latin pelicānus. Compare Aromanian pilican.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /pe.liˈkan/

### Noun

pelican m (plural pelicani)
* pelican (any of various seabirds of the family Pelecanidae)

#### Derived terms

* pelican comun
* pelican creț
* pelicanol

#### Related terms

* pelecaniforme

#### See also

* steganipod

### References

* pelican in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language)

## Welsh
### Etymology

Borrowed from English pelican.

### Noun

pelican m (plural pelicanod)
* pelican (seabird of the family Pelecanidae)
    Synonym: pelig

#### Derived terms

* croesfan pelican (“pelican crossing”)
* pelican Dalmatia (“Dalmatian pelican”)
* pelican gwyn (“great white pelican”)
* pelican gwyn America (“American white pelican”)

### Mutation

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh. All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.