Re: [dinosaur] Xunmenglong, new compsognathid theropod from Lower Cretaceous of China

David Marjanovic <[email protected]> wrote:

> That's not a hypothesis, that's an observed fact: the great auk is called pingouin in French, where the penguins are called manchot

I had thought it was more complicated than that.  True, "pingouin" is
the French scientific word for auks e.g., le grand pingouin (the great
auk) and le petit pingouin (razorbill).  I had read somewhere that the
word "manchot" was introduced by the 18th century French naturalist
Georges-Louis Leclerc (Comte de Buffon) in a conscious effort to
differentiate penguins from auks.  (Apparently, "manchot" means
someone with no hands.)

However, "pingouin" persists in French as an informal name for
penguins - such as the movie "Penguins of Madagascar", which was
translated into French as "Les Pingouins de Madagascar".  Perhaps not
the best example; but although the distinction between "pingouin" vs
"manchot" is clear in French ornithological circles, it's not as clear
in vernacular French (including pop culture).

> In Welsh, Cornish and Breton, pen gwynn (and variants) literally means "white head" and was applied to one of the capes the great auks covered in guano.

Or because of the white spot on the great auk's head?