[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Reference works](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference) › [Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886) › c10.134 # Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.134 Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.134 - **Language:** English ### [c10.134](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.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.” - [Previous: c10.133](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10.133) - [Next: c10.135](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10.135) - [Up: c10](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10.134](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10.134) · Pramāṇa