blue whale

[bloo hweyl, weyl]

noun

1. a migratory baleen whale, Balaenoptera musculus, mostly of oceans and seas in the Southern Hemisphere, the largest mammal ever known, growing to a length of 100 feet (30.5 meters) and having a furrowed, slate-blue skin mottled with lighter spots, in some seas acquiring a yellowish coating of diatoms on the underside: now classified as endangered, it was once hunted nearly to extinction, but international conservation efforts begun in the 1960s have enabled the blue whale population to rebound significantly.

blue whale

noun

1. Also called: sulphur-bottom. the largest mammal: a widely distributed bluish-grey whalebone whale, Sibbaldus (or Balaenoptera ) musculus , closely related and similar to the rorquals: family Balaenopteridae

Word History and Origins

Origin of blue whale¹

First recorded in 1850–55