Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.134

c10.134

**ALBATROSS**, s. The great sea-bird (*Diomedea exulans*, L.), from the Port. *alcatraz*, to which the forms used by Hawkins and Dampier, and by Flacourt (according to Marcel Devic) closely approach. [Alcatras ‘in this sense altered to *albi-*, *albe-*, *albatross* (perhaps with etymological reference to *albus*, “white,” the albatross being white, while the *alcatras* was black.’) *N.E.D.* s.v.] The Port. word properly means ‘a pelican.’ A reference to the latter word in our Glossary will show another curious misapplication. Devic states that *alcatruz* in Port. means ‘the bucket of a Persian wheel,’* representing the Ar. *al-kādūs*, which is again from *κάδος*. He supposes that the pelican may have got this name in the same way that it is called in ordinary Ar. *sakka*, ‘a water-carrier.’ It has been pointed out by Dr Murray, that the *alcatruz* of some of the earlier voyagers, *e.g.*, of Davis below, is not the *Diomedea*, but the Man-of-War (or Frigate) Bird (*Fregatus aquilus*). Hawkins, at p. 187 of the work quoted, describes, without naming, a bird which is evidently the modern albatross. In the quotation from Mocquet again, *alcatruz* is applied to some smaller sea-bird. The passage from Shelvocke is that which suggested to Coleridge “The Ancient Mariner.”