What is "penguin"

Penguin \Pen"guin\, n. [Perh. orig. the name of another bird, and fr. W. pen head + gwyn white; or perh. from a native South American name.]

1. (Zo["o]l.) Any bird of the order Impennes, or Ptilopteri. They are covered with short, thick feathers, almost scalelike on the wings, which are without true quills. They are unable to fly, but use their wings to aid in diving, in which they are very expert. See King penguin, under Jackass.

   Note: Penguins are found in the south temperate and antarctic regions. The king penguins ( Aptenodytes Patachonica, and Aptenodytes longirostris) are the largest; the jackass penguins ( Spheniscus) and the rock hoppers ( Catarractes) congregate in large numbers at their breeding grounds.

2. (Bot.) The egg-shaped fleshy fruit of a West Indian plant ( Bromelia Pinguin) of the Pineapple family; also, the plant itself, which has rigid, pointed, and spiny-toothed leaves, and is used for hedges. [Written also pinguin.]

   Arctic penguin (Zo["o]l.), the great auk. See Auk.

1570s, originally used of the great auk of Newfoundland (now extinct), shift in meaning to the Antarctic bird (which looks something like it, found by Drake in Magellan's Straits in 1578) is from 1580s. Of unknown origin, though often asserted to be from Welsh pen "head" (see pen-) + gwyn "white" (see Gwendolyn), but Barnhart says the proposed formation is not proper Welsh. The great auk had a large white patch between its bill and eye. The French and Breton versions of the word ultimately are from English.

n. 1 Any of several flightless sea birds, of order ''Sphenisciformes'', found in the Southern Hemisphere; marked by their usual upright stance, walking on short legs, and (generally) their stark black and white plumage. (from 16th c.) 2 (context slang English) A nun (because of the black and white habit). 3 (context juggling English) A type of catch where the palm of the hand is facing towards the leg with the arm stretched downward, resembling the flipper of a penguin. 4 (context botany English) A spiny bromeliad with egg-shaped fleshy fruit, (taxlink Bromelia pinguin species noshow=1).

n. short-legged flightless birds of cold southern especially Antarctic regions having webbed feet and wings modified as flippers

Penguins ( order Sphenisciformes, family Spheniscidae) are a group of aquatic, flightless birds living almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere, especially in Antarctica. Highly adapted for life in the water, penguins have countershaded dark and white plumage, and their wings have evolved into flippers. Most penguins feed on krill, fish, squid and other forms of sealife caught while swimming underwater. They spend about half of their lives on land and half in the oceans.

Although all penguin species are native to the Southern Hemisphere, they are not found only in cold climates, such as Antarctica. In fact, only a few species of penguin live so far south. Several species are found in the temperate zone, and one species, the Galápagos penguin, lives near the equator.

The largest living species is the emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri): on average adults are about tall and weigh or more. The smallest penguin species is the little blue penguin (Eudyptula minor), also known as the fairy penguin, which stands around tall and weighs . Among extant penguins, larger penguins inhabit colder regions, while smaller penguins are generally found in temperate or even tropical climates (see also Bergmann's rule). Some prehistoric species attained enormous sizes, becoming as tall or as heavy as an adult human. These were not restricted to Antarctic regions; on the contrary, subantarctic regions harboured high diversity, and at least one giant penguin occurred in a region not quite 2,000 km south of the equator 35 mya , in a climate decidedly warmer than today.

A penguin is a flightless bird from the Southern Hemisphere.

Penguin or penguins may also refer to:

The Penguin anti-ship missile, designated AGM-119 by the U.S. military, is a Norwegian passive IR seeker-based short-to-medium range anti-ship guided missile, designed for naval use.

Penguin is a solitaire card game, invented by David Parlett, which uses a deck of 52 playing cards. The game play is similar to other solitaire card games as Freecell and Eight Off.

Penguins are milk chocolate-covered biscuit bars filled with chocolate cream. They are produced by United Biscuits' manufacturing division McVitie's. The Tim Tam produced by Arnott's in Australia was based on the Penguin. Occasional media references include tongue-in-cheek debates over which is the superior biscuit.

The Penguin (Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot) is a fictional supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly as an adversary of the superhero Batman. Artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger introduced the character in Detective Comics #58 (December 1941). The Penguin is one of Batman's most enduring enemies and belongs to the collective of adversaries that make up Batman's rogues gallery.

The Penguin is depicted as being a short, portly man who uses specialized, high-tech umbrellas as weapons. A mobster and thief, he fancies himself as being a " gentleman of crime". The Penguin runs a nightclub called Iceberg Lounge, which provides a cover for criminal activity, and Batman sometimes uses the nightclub as a source of criminal underworld information. According to Kane, the character was inspired from the then advertising mascot of Kool cigarettes – a penguin with a top hat and cane. Finger thought the image of high-society gentlemen in tuxedos was reminiscent of emperor penguins.

Burgess Meredith portrayed the Penguin in the 1960s Batman television series and its movie. Danny DeVito played a darker, more grotesque version in the 1992 film Batman Returns. Subsequent Batman animated series featured him in depictions that alternated between deformed outcast and high-profile aristocrat, or a blend of the two. Robin Lord Taylor currently portrays a young Penguin in the television series Gotham. The Penguin has repeatedly been named one of the best Batman villains, and one of the greatest villains in comics and, paradoxically, has also been described by others as among the least convincing. Penguin was ranked #51 in IGN's list of the Top 100 Comic Book Villains of All Time.

Penguin is the seventh album by British rock band Fleetwood Mac, released in 1973. It was the first Fleetwood Mac album after the departure of Danny Kirwan and first to feature Bob Weston and the only one to feature Dave Walker.

The penguin is the band mascot favoured by John McVie. His fascination with the birds originated from when he lived near London Zoo during the early days of his marriage to Christine McVie. He was a member of the Zoological Society and would spend hours at the zoo studying and watching the penguins.

The Penguin is an cat-rigged sailing dinghy designed in 1938 by Philip Rhodes. The design experienced a surge in popularity after an article with construction plans was published in Yachting Magazine in 1940. The boat was originally designed to be easily built by an amateur at home out of plywood. Penguins are available in wood and fiberglass today, and the class is popular for cold-weather frostbiting runs.

Penguin is a 2007 award winning children's picture book by Polly Dunbar. It is about a boy who receives a penguin as a present and how they interact.