petrel
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: pĕt'rəl
ipa: /ˈpɛtɹəl/
homophone: petrol (most accents)
Forms: form: petrels
Etymology: From earlier pitteral. Perhaps a diminutive of Peter, with reference to St. Peter's walking on the water (Matthew 14:29).
A derivation from patter or pitter-patter has been suggested, for instance by ornithologist Elliott Ladd Coues.
Senses: examples: text: The seventh of May following, we first saw many Birds in bignesse of Cliffe Pidgeons, and after divers other as Pettrels, Cootes, Hagbuts, Pengwins, Murres, Gannets, Cormorants, Guls, with many else in our English Tongue of no name.
ref: 1625, Samuel Purchas, Hakluytus Posthumus, or Purchas his Pilgrimes, The Relation of Captaine GOSNOLS Voyage to the North part of Virginia, begunne the sixe and twentieth of March, Anno 42. ELIZABETHAE Reginae 1602. and delivered by GABRIEL ARCHER, a Gentleman in the said Voyage:
text: In a storm they will hover close under the ship's stern in the wake of the ship (as it is called) or the smoothness which the ship's passing has made on the sea; and there as they fly (gently then) they pat the water alternately with their feet as if they walked upon it; though still upon the wing. And from hence the seamen give them the name of petrels in allusion to St. Peter's walking upon the Lake of Gennesareth.
ref: 1703, William Dampier, chapter III, in A Voyage to New Holland, etc. in the Year 1699:
glosses: Any of various species of black, grey, or white seabirds in the order Procellariiformes.
wikipedia: petrel
Derived terms: sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Antarctic petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: ashy storm petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Atlantic petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Barau's petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Bermuda petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: black-bellied storm petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: black-capped petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: black storm petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: black-winged petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: blue petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Bonin petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Bulwer's petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: cape petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Cape petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Chatham petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: common diving petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Cook's petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: dark-rumped petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: diving petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: European storm petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Fea's petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Fiji petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: fork-tailed storm petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: fulmarine petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: fulmar-petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: gadfly petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: giant petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Gould's petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: great-winged petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: grey-backed storm petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Guadalupe storm petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Hawaiian petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: herald petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Juan Fernandez petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Kaeding's petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Kerguelen petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Kermadec petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Leach's petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Leach's storm petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: least storm petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Madeiran storm petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Madeira petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Magellan diving petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Magenta petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Markham's storm petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Mas a Tierra petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Mascarene petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Matsudaira's storm petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: mottled petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Murphy's petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: New Zealand storm petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: northern giant petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Peruvian diving petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Phoenix petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Polynesian storm petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Providence petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Pycroft's petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: ringed storm petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: snow petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: soft-plumaged petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: southern giant petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: South Georgia diving petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Stejneger's petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: storm petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: stormy petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Swinhoe's storm petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Tahiti petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Tristram's storm petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: wedge-rumped storm petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: white-bellied storm petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: white-chinned petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: white-faced storm petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: white-headed petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: white-necked petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: white-vented storm petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Wilson's petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Wilson's storm Petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Wilson's storm petrel
sense: terms derived from petrel (noun)
word: Zino's petrel