solan

American  

[soh-luhn] / ˈsoʊ lən /

noun

1. a gannet.

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solan British  

/ ˈsəʊlən /

noun

1. an archaic name for the gannet

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Etymology

Origin of solan

1400–50; late Middle English soland < Old Norse sūla gannet + ǫnd duck

Example Sentences

The Sula bassana, or solan goose: a large sea bird of the family Pelecanidæ, common on the Scottish coasts.

From The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by Belcher, Edward, Sir

Bass Rock, a steep basaltic rock at the mouth of the Firth of Forth, 350 ft. high, tenanted by solan geese; once used as a prison, specially in Covenanting times.

From The Nuttall Encyclopædia Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge by Nuttall, P. Austin

Beyond the keeper of the lighthouse there are only one or two families of poor fisher-folk, who sustain a precarious existence by their nets, and by the capture of cormorants and solan geese.

From The Captain of the Polestar by Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir

We will feel the fresh wind blowing in the canvas, and the salt spindrift in our faces, and the boat going as if she were a solan flying for the rock.”

From Jan Vedder's Wife by Barr, Amelia Edith Huddleston

A long flight of solan geese could just be seen slowly sailing along the western horizon.

From Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 11, No. 24, March, 1873 by Various