right whale

English
North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) cow with calf

Etymology

From right + whale, but the sense of right in the name is unknown. The commonly given etymology based on these whales being for various reasons the "right" whales to hunt (e.g. easy to hunt and docile) is questionable but highly plausible and therefore not necessarily a folk etymology, as Eric Jay Dolin writes in 2007 in his history of American whaling: The earliest references to the right whale offer no indication why it was called that, and some who have studied the issue point out that the word "right" in this context might just as likely be intended "to connote 'true' or 'proper,' meaning typical of the group." The scientific name of the whale's genus is Eubalaena, which means "good or true whales".

Noun

right whale (plural right whales)

  1. Any of certain baleen whales of the family Balaenidae, in the genera Eubalaena (three species) and Balaena (one species, the bowhead whale, also called Greenland right whale). [from 18th c.]
    • 2018 June 20, Chelsea Murray, The Guardian‎:
      The previous night, they’d received a call from the federal Department of Oceans and Fisheries (DFO): a right whale was tangled up in crab trap lines near their location.

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