1772: dolphin Oct 21, 2019

Dogs may today be "man's best friend", but some think dolphins should take that title in the classical world. There is a half-myth that 'dolphin' comes from a word 'meaning 'brother' because of how human-like they are; these facts are mostly true separately but the narrative is false. Indeed, 'adelphos' (ἀδελφός) also found in 'Philadelphia'—"the city of brotherly love"—means 'brothers', but a better translation here would be 'womb'; dolphins got the name here because they are mammals so the females have wombs, and it means 'brother' too, but only because of the idea that brothers would share a womb.
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