blubber
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈblʌbə/
ipa: /ˈblʌbəɹ/
ipa: /ˈblʊbəɹ/
ipa: /ˈblʊbə/
rhymes: -ʌbə(ɹ)
Forms: form: blubbers
form: blobber
Etymology: The verb is derived from Late Middle English bloberen, bluberen (“to bubble, seethe”); and the noun from Late Middle English blober, bluber (“bubble; bubbling water; foaming waves; fish or whale oil; entrails, intestines; (medicine) pustule”), both probably onomatopoeic, representing the movement or sound of a bubbling liquid, or the movement of lips forming bubbles (compare bleb and blob, thought to be similarly imitative). As both the verb and noun are attested in the 14th century, it is difficult to tell which one developed first; the Oxford English Dictionary suggests that the noun may be derived from the verb.
Verb sense 1.2 (“to cause (one’s face) to disfigure or swell through crying”) is influenced by blubber (adjective).
Senses: examples: text: Though their [the hyena whale or pilot whale's] blubber is very thin, some of these whales will yield you upwards of thirty gallons of oil.
ref: 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Cetology”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 155:
text: There was a most Monstrous Whale: / He had no Skin, he had no Tail. / When he tried to Spout, that Great Big Lubber, / The best he could do was Jiggle his Blubber.
ref: 1937–1961, Theodore Roethke, “The Whale”, in I Am! Says the Lamb, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, published 1961, →OCLC, part 1 (The Nonsense Poems), page 12:
text: The first barrels of crude fetched $18 (around $450 at today's prices). It was used to make kerosene, the main fuel for artificial lighting after overfishing led to a shortage of whale blubber.
ref: 2013 August 3, “Yesterday’s fuel”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847, London: The Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 04 Aug 2013:
glosses: A fatty layer of adipose tissue found immediately beneath the epidermis of whales and other cetaceans (infraorder Cetacea).
examples: text: There were hundred of slaughtered seals, and it was evident that, as far as the eye could reach, the work of death had been complete. Still something had occurred to prevent the hunters from securing their rich booty, for huge piles of skins, with their adhering blubber, were scattered over the ice, and near one was planted firmly in the floe a boat-hook, with a small flag at the top.
ref: 1877, Charles W[inslow] Hall, “A Change of Base—Building a Snow-hut—The View from the Berg—A Strange Meeting”, in Adrift in the Ice-fields, Boston, Mass.: Lee and Shepard; New York, N.Y.: Charles T. Dillingham, →OCLC, page 257:
glosses: A fatty layer of adipose tissue found immediately beneath the epidermis of whales and other cetaceans (infraorder Cetacea).
A fatty layer of adipose tissue found in other animals which keeps them warm, especially Arctic animals such as sea lions and Antarctic animals such as penguins.
examples: text: Are you numbered among the employed yet? I read the unemployment figures and I shudder. You do not have any stored-up blubber to live on.
ref: 1977 April 23, M. M. B., “Letter from Home”, in Neil Miller, editor, Gay Community News, volume 4, number 43, Boston, Mass.: GCN, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 16, column 1:
glosses: A fatty layer of adipose tissue found immediately beneath the epidermis of whales and other cetaceans (infraorder Cetacea).
A person's fat tissue, usually when regarded as excessive and unsightly.
examples: text: You know, Jacob, that the North Seas are full of these animals—you cannot imagine the quantity of them; the sailors call them blubbers, because they are composed of a sort of transparent jelly, but the real name I am told is Medusæ, that is, the learned name.
ref: 1834, [Frederick Marryat], chapter II, in Jacob Faithful […], volume III, London: Saunders and Otley, […], →OCLC, page 23:
glosses: A fatty layer of adipose tissue found immediately beneath the epidermis of whales and other cetaceans (infraorder Cetacea).
A jellyfish (subphylum Medusozoa).
examples: text: Fassmann gives dolorous clippings from the Leyden Gazette, all in a blubber of tears, according to the then fashion, but full of impertinent curiosity withal.
ref: 1858, Thomas Carlyle, “In Papa’s Sick-room; Prussian Inspections; End of War”, in History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great, volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book IX, page 536:
glosses: An act of crying or weeping freely and noisily.
glosses: A bubble.
Derived terms: blubberbrain
blubberfest
blubberhead
blubberless
blubberlike
blubberous
blubbery
blubbo
sea-blubber
sea blubber