2393: whale Jul 8, 2021

The word 'whale' has its origins even in idioms and phrases of Old English, the concept used to be more generic. First off, the Old English could refer to a walrus, which is a compound once meaning 'whale-horse' in Dutch, or 'horschwæl' in Old English. This word was also part of many kennings like 'hron-rād' ('whale-road'). Likewise, this root historically just referred to any large sea-animal, such as the Latin 'squalus' denoting anything big in the sea. Indeed this idea carried on into modern phrases like 'whale of a time' which just means 'big; grand'.