Phocoena phocoena (1) Etymology
From Middle English porpeys purpeys Anglo-Norman porpeis purpeis Old French pourpois porpois pourpais porpeis ( “ porpoise ” ) , from Vulgar Latin * porcopiscis ( “ porpoise ” , literally “ pig-fish ” ) , from Latin porcus ( “ pig ” ) + piscis ( “ fish ” ) . Compare (in transposed order) obsolete Italian pesce porco Portuguese peixe porco Latin porcus marinus ( “ sea hog ” ) , akin in formation to German Meerschwein English mereswine mereswine
Noun
porpoise (plural porpoises
A small cetacean of the family Phocoenidae dolphins and whales .
Synonyms: garfish mereswine sea hog sea pig seaswine 1991 Baiji: The Yangtze River Dolphin and Other Endangered Animals of China →ISBN →LCCN →OCLC page 76 :They captured 25 porpoises and set them free back into the Yangtze after raising them for a month in Puqi County, Hubei.
( Canada , US , imprecisely) Translations
cetacean
Abkhaz: please add this translation if you can
Albanian: marsuinët
Arabic: خِنْزِير الْبَحْر m ( ḵinzīr al-baḥr )
Armenian: ծովախոզ (hy) ( covaxoz )
Asturian: botu (ast) boticu (ast) moscote (ast)
Belarusian: марска́я свіння́ f ( marskája svinnjá )
Breton: morhoc'h m
Bulgarian: тъпонос делфин m ( tǎponos delfin )
Catalan: marsopa (ca) f
Cherokee: ᏗᏁᏍᏆᏕᎩᏳᏍᏗ ( dinesquadegiyusdi )
Chinese:
Mandarin: 鼠海豚 (zh) ( shǔhǎitún )
Cornish: morhogh m
Czech: sviňucha (cs) f
Dutch: bruinvis (nl) m
Esperanto: foceno
Faroese: nísa f
Finnish: pyöriäinen (fi)
French: marsouin (fr) m
Galician: fouliña f touliña f toniña (gl) f porco de mar m
Georgian: დელფინი ( delpini ) ( also dolphin ) , ზღვის ღორი ( zɣvis ɣori )
German: Tümmler m Schweinswal (de) m
Greek: γουρουνόψαρο n ( gourounópsaro )
Ancient: φώκαινα f ( phṓkaina )
Hindi: सूंस m ( sūns )
Hungarian: ( Phocoenidae ) disznódelfin (hu) ( Phocoena phocoena, harbour porpoise ) barna delfin
Icelandic: hnísa (is) f marsvín (is) n
Irish: muc mhara m
Italian: focena (it) f
Japanese: ネズミイルカ (ja) ( nezumiiruka )
Khmer: សមុទ្រសុករ ( sak mut su kak rak )
Klallam: k'ʷánət'
Korean: 쇠돌고래 ( soedolgorae ) , 돌고래 (ko) ( dolgorae )
Lao: ເດິນຟິນໜູ ( dœn fin nū )
Laz: please add this translation if you can
Lithuanian: jūrų kiaulė f ( in most cases )
Low German:
German Low German: Trömmelswien n Dümmler m
Macedonian: мо́рска сви́ња f ( mórska svínja )
Maori: tūpoupou
Mari:
Eastern Mari: вӱд сӧсна ( vüd sösna )
Middle English: porpeys mereswyn
Navajo: tééh hóyáanii
Nootka: hicwin
Norman: pourpais m
Norwegian:
Bokmål: nise m or f
Nynorsk: nise f
Old English: mereswīn n
Old Norse: hnísa f
Ottoman Turkish: طوڭوز بالغی ( doñuz balığı ) , یونس بالغی ( yunus balığı )
Persian: گرازماهی ( gorâzmâhi ) , خوکماهی ( xuk-mâhi )
Plautdietsch: Mäaschwien n
Polish: morświn (pl) m
Portuguese: toninha (pt) f
Romanian: marsuin (ro) m
Romansch: balena-portg f
Russian: морска́я свинья́ (ru) f ( morskája svinʹjá )
Scots: dunter
Scottish Gaelic: peileag f puthag f cana (gd) m
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: плискавица f морско прасе n
Roman: pliskavica (sh) f morsko prase (sh) n
Slovak: sviňucha f
Slovene: pliskavka f
Spanish: marsopa (es) f
Swahili: poposi
Swedish: tumlare (sv) c
Tagalog: marsopa
Telugu: నీరుపంది (te) ( nīrupandi )
Thai: พอร์พอยส์ ( pɔɔ-pɔ́is )
Turkish: musur
Ukrainian: морська́ свиня́ f ( morsʹká svynjá )
Vietnamese: cá heo (vi)
Welsh: llamhidydd (cy) m morhwch f
Wolof: piipa bi
imprecisely, any small dolphin
Verb
porpoise (third-person singular simple present porpoises present participle porpoising simple past and past participle porpoised
( intransitive ) 1979 J.G. Ballard , The Unlimited Dream Company Urging them to join me, I raced in circles through the surging water, chased my tail for the children, blew spouts of foam through the sunfilled spray, porpoised to and fro across the river in shallow leaps that stitched the air and water into a table-lace of foam.
( intransitive ) Synonym: ( of an aircraft ) balloon 
