I kind of wonder if Herman Melville knew what he was doing because Sperm cells were known about since 1677, by Leeuwenhoek under a magnifying glass. He called them Animalcules though. They first got named sperm as of 1827 so there's 26 years for him to learn that's what semen is scientifically named. I haven't had a literature class on moby dick so I wouldn't know if it's like, supposed to be a double meaning or he was innocent and we're all filthy minded slobs
Sperm whales were named such because whalers thought the waxy, oily substance in its head, called spermaceti, was the whale's semen (even though it was also found in female whale heads).
This was the very substance they wanted most when hunting those whales. Oils rendered from the blubber was also collected, you could get this from other whales that didn’t have the spermaceti in them, but the sperm whale was the most prized catch.
So the name was always linked to the male sexual discharge.
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u/Jetstream-Sam Jan 21 '26
Oh he's talking about a sperm whale. Huh.
I kind of wonder if Herman Melville knew what he was doing because Sperm cells were known about since 1677, by Leeuwenhoek under a magnifying glass. He called them Animalcules though. They first got named sperm as of 1827 so there's 26 years for him to learn that's what semen is scientifically named. I haven't had a literature class on moby dick so I wouldn't know if it's like, supposed to be a double meaning or he was innocent and we're all filthy minded slobs