PELICAN, s. This word, in its proper application to the Pelicanus onocrotalus, L., is in no respect peculiar to Anglo-India, though we may here observe that the bird is called in Hindi by the poetical name gagan-bheṛ, i.e. 'Sheep of the Sky,' which we have heard natives with their strong propensity to metathesis convert into the equally appropriate Gangā-bheṛī or 'Sheep of the Ganges.' The name may be illustrated by the old term 'Cape-sheep' applied to the albatross.[[222]] But Pelican is habitually misapplied by the British soldier in India to the bird usually called [Adjutant] (q.v.). We may remember how Prof. Max Müller, in his Lectures on Language, tells us that the Tahitians show respect to their sovereign by ceasing to employ in common language those words which form part or the whole of his name, and invent new terms to supply their place. "The object was clearly to guard against the name of the sovereign being ever used, even by accident, in ordinary conversation," 2nd ser. 1864, p. 35, [Frazer, Golden Bough, 2nd ed. i. 421 seqq.]. Now, by an analogous process, it is possible that some martinet, holding the office of adjutant, at an early date in the Anglo-Indian history, may have resented the ludicrously appropriate employment of the usual name of the bird, and so may have introduced the entirely inappropriate name of pelican in its place. It is in the recollection of one of the present writers that a worthy northern matron, who with her husband had risen from the ranks in the —th Light Dragoons, on being challenged for speaking of "the pelicans in the barrack-yard," maintained her correctness, conceding only that "some ca'd them paylicans, some ca'd them audjutants."
1829.—"This officer ... on going round the yard (of the military prison) ... discovered a large beef-bone recently dropped. The sergeant was called to account for this ominous appearance. This sergeant was a shrewd fellow, and he immediately said,—'Oh Sir, the pelicans have dropped it.' This was very plausible, for these birds will carry enormous bones; and frequently when fighting for them they drop them, so that this might very probably have been the case. The moment the dinner-trumpet sounds, whole flocks of these birds are in attendance at the barrack-doors, waiting for bones, or anything that the soldiers may be pleased to throw to them."—Mem. of John Shipp, ii. 25.
PENANG, n.p. This is the proper name of the Island adjoining the Peninsula of Malacca (Pulo, properly Pulau, Pinang), which on its cession to the English (1786) was named 'Prince of Wales's Island.' But this official style has again given way to the old name. Pinang in Malay signifies an areca-nut or areca-tree, and, according to Crawfurd, the name was given on account of the island's resemblance in form to the fruit of the tree (vulgo, 'the betel-nut').
1592.—"Now the [winter] coming vpon vs with much contagious weather, we directed our course from hence with the Ilands of Pulo Pinaou (where by the way is to be noted that Pulo in the Malaian tongue signifieth an Iland) ... where we came to an anker in a very good harborough betweene three Ilands.... This place is in 6 degrees and a halfe to the Northward, and some fiue leagues from the maine betweene Malacca and Pegu."—Barker, in Hakl. ii. 589-590.
PENANG LAWYER, s. The popular name of a handsome and hard (but sometimes brittle) walking-stick, exported from Penang and Singapore. It is the stem of a miniature palm (Licuala acutifida, Griffith). The sticks are prepared by scraping the young stem with glass, so as to remove the epidermis and no more. The sticks are then straightened by fire and polished (Balfour). The name is popularly thought to have originated in a jocular supposition that law-suits in Penang were decided by the lex baculina. But there can be little doubt that it is a corruption of some native term, and pinang liyar, 'wild areca' [or pinang lāyor, "fire-dried areca," which is suggested in N.E.D.], may almost be assumed to be the real name. [Dennys (Descr. Dict. s.v.) says from "Layor, a species of cane furnishing the sticks so named." But this is almost certainly wrong.]
1883.—(But the book—an excellent one—is without date—more shame to the Religious Tract Society which publishes it). "Next morning, taking my 'Penang lawyer' to defend myself from dogs...." The following note is added: "A Penang lawyer is a heavy walking-stick, supposed to be so called from its usefulness in settling disputes in Penang."—Gilmour, Among the Mongols, 14.
PENGUIN, s. Popular name of several species of birds belonging to the genera Aptenodytes and Spheniscus. We have not been able to ascertain the etymology of this name. It may be from the Port. pingue, 'fat.' See Littré. He quotes Clausius as picturing it, who says they were called a pinguedine. It is surely not that given by Sir Thomas Herbert in proof of the truth of the legend of Madoc's settlement in America; and which is indeed implied 60 years before by the narrator of Drake's voyage; though probably borrowed by Herbert direct from Selden.
1578.—"In these Islands we found greate relief and plenty of good victuals, for infinite were the number of fowle which the Welsh men named Penguin, and Magilanus tearmed them geese...."—Drake's Voyage, by F. Fletcher, Hak. Soc. p. 72.
1593.—"The pengwin described."—Hawkins, V. to S. Sea, p. 111, Hak. Soc.
1606.—"The Pengwines bee as bigge as our greatest Capons we have in England, they have no winges nor cannot flye ... they bee exceeding fatte, but their flesh is verie ranke...."—Middleton, f. B. 4.