narwhal

英 ['nɑ?w(?)l] 美['nɑrwɑl]

narwhal 獨(dú)角鯨

來自挪威語narhval,來自nar,浮尸，hval,鯨，即whale.因這種鯨的顏色形如浮尸的蒼白色而得名。

narwhal: narwhal: [17] The narwhal, a small arctic whale with a long unicorn-like tusk, is whitish in colour, which evidently reminded Viking seafarers somewhat morbidly of a corpse, for they named it in Old Icelandic nāhvalr, literally ‘corpse whale’. In Danish and Norwegian this became narhval, and English took it over and partially anglicized it as narh whale. Over the centuries this has contracted to narwhal.
narwhal (n.): 1650s, from Danish and Norwegian narhval, probably a metathesis of Old Norse nahvalr, literally "corpse-whale," from na "corpse" + hvalr "whale" (see whale). So called from resemblance of its whitish color to that of dead bodies. The first element is from PIE *nau- (1) "death; to be exhausted" (cognates: Old English ne, neo, Gothic naus "corpse," Old Cornish naun, Old Church Slavonic navi, Old Prussian nowis "corpse," Lettish nawe "death," Lithuanian novyti "to torture, kill").

1. Whether they catch a male or female narwhal, the Inuit waste nothing.: 不論獵捕到公角鯨或母角鯨, 因紐特人絕不浪費(fèi)絲毫可用之物.

2. The narwhal's single, spiral tusk has always been a mystery.: 獨(dú)角鯨那獨(dú)一無二的螺旋狀尖角總是被視為神秘之物.

3. The male narwhal's extraordinary 1 tusk, up to three meters long, inspired 2 legends 3 of unicorns long ago.: 公角鯨奇特的長牙(長達(dá)三米)在古時曾引發(fā)關(guān)于獨(dú)角獸的傳說.

4. In fact, this monster is not a narwhal, but a wonderful submarine structure.: 其實(shí)這怪物并非什么獨(dú)角鯨, 而是一艘構(gòu)造奇妙的潛水艇.