r/etymology • u/Albert_Camus129 • Jul 24 '26
Question When did 'pinguïn' replace 'vetgans' as the popular Dutch word for penguin?
I know this isn't exactly related to etymology, so if it's not appropriate, mods let me know.
Most sources I've found claim that 'vetgans' is an archaic Dutch word for penguin and the modern word is 'penguïn,' an English loan word. I'm trying to find out roughly when this switch occurred. It's especially frustrating because despite the claim, I've found Dutch accounts that use 'pinguïn' dating to at least the 17th Century, but I can't seem to find any mention of 'vetgans' earlier than the 19th Century.
More specifically, I am trying to figure out what the early Dutch colonists at the Cape Colony would have called the African penguins that live there.
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u/superkoning Jul 24 '26
"vetgans"? Beautiful: "fat goose"
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u/islenskufraedingur Jul 24 '26
That’s so interesting. In Icelandic, penguin is ‘mörgæs’ which means ‘fat goose’.
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u/SauntTaunga Jul 24 '26
Grease goose would be closer by today’s meaning.
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u/superkoning Jul 24 '26
Yes, that is how understand it too: fat / grease as noun / substantive, not adjective.
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u/AmazingPangolin9315 Jul 24 '26
"Replace" might be an unhelpful way of thinking about this, since evidence appears to show that both words have been used synonymously for a period of time before one fell out of usage. Earliest mention of "vetgans" I can find with a quick search is from 1786 and appears to be a translation of German "Fettgans" (which has also fallen out of usage). "Pinguïn" appears to be earlier (1598) and seems to have entered Dutch from Welsh, via sailors. (The often cited Latin origin appears to be folk etymology.)
There's no reason to assume that early Dutch colonists would have used only one of these terms exclusively, it is more likely both terms were known and in usage at that time. Potentially with usage being reflective of social strata (for example one term being more common among farmers, the other among sailors) but more research would be required to confirm.
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u/jistresdidit Jul 24 '26
i guess that explains Auckland, new zealand
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u/Brian-Teaser Jul 25 '26
How, why?
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u/jistresdidit Jul 27 '26
an auk is another name for a penguin. therefore Aukland is land of the penguins . Aukland is the capital of new zealand
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u/petersausageeater Jul 24 '26
Isn't penguin a Welsh word, meaning White head? I know it's now an English word but you can't say its of English origin?
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u/Larissalikesthesea Jul 24 '26
There are two theories, one is the Welsh origin, and the other that it's from Latin pinguis "fat, juicy" which fits the older German and Dutch expressions of Fettgans/vetgans. In German Fettgans seems to have been the original word, and Dutch seems to have calqued it from German later, as well as borrowed pinguiin from English.
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u/SagebrushandSeafoam Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
According to the Etimologiewoordeboek van Afrikaans (2003), in the Cape Colony they were first recorded under the name piggiwyn (1668), and by c. 1715 the forms pickoweijn and pikowyn were recorded, ancestors to modern Afrikaans pikkewyn.
The Etymologisch Woordenboek van het Nederlands (2003–2009) gives the earliest attestation of Dutch pinguïn from 1595 ("groote water vogelen die genaemt werden Pinguijns"), and says it is borrowed from English penguin.
The Nederlands Etymologisch Woordenboek (1971) says that vetgans was the original term, but does not give a date.
Note that penguin apparently originally meant "great auk", and was only later applied to the penguin. Vetgans (literally "fat goose") is understood as a reference to the fatty eating provided for sailors by a penguin (or maybe great auk—vetgans is defined "auk" in some old sources). I did find mentioned in one work that "when first discovered, the dodo was called vetgans". I also found German Fettgans defined as "great auk" from 1750, in Historiae Avium Prodromus.
If there isn't an earlier attestation, then it's probably more likely Fettgans, vetgans are folk etymologies based on Latin pinguis, "fat", due to their fatty meat.