Walrus Means Whale-Horse, Roughly Backwards
A walrus is a large tusked marine mammal. Its name comes from Dutch, and appears to be a reversal of an older Norse compound.
A walrus is a large Arctic mammal with tusks and whiskers. The name came into English from Dutch in the 1650s and looks like a scrambled compound: Old Norse had *hrosshvalr*, horse-whale, and the Germanic forms appear to have reversed the elements into whale-horse. English also knew it as a *sea-horse* and a *morse* before the Dutch word won.
- The Arctic mammal. *A herd of walruses.*
- Walrus moustache — a thick drooping one. *A grey walrus moustache.*
- Plural — walruses, or walrus. *Two walruses.*
- Tusks — elongated canine teeth. *Its tusks reach a metre.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | walrus | A bull walrus. |
| Plural | walruses | Twenty walruses. |
| Compound | walrus moustache | A walrus moustache. |
| Dutch source | walrus | The borrowed form. |
| Norse | hrosshvalr | Horse-whale. |
- Walruses haul out on the ice in large numbers.Behaviour.
- He grew a walrus moustache.The style.
- I am the walrus.The Beatles, 1967.
Facts about walruses
- Tusks — grown by both sexes, used to haul out of water and in display
- Whiskers — highly sensitive, used to find shellfish on the seabed
- Weight — large males can exceed a tonne
- Blubber — a thick insulating layer against Arctic water
- Haul-outs — they gather on ice or shore in very large groups
Dutch *walrus*, apparently from a Germanic compound of whale and horse, possibly a reversal of Old Norse *hrosshvalr*. English adopted it in the 1650s.
What does walrus literally mean?
Roughly whale-horse. The elements appear to have been reversed from an older Norse compound meaning horse-whale.
What is the plural of walrus?
Walruses is standard. The unchanged plural walrus also appears in wildlife writing.