puffling

English

WOTD – 5 January 2019

Etymology

A puffling of a horned puffin (Fratercula corniculata) at the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward, Alaska, USA

From puff(in) +‎ -ling.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpʌflɪŋ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: puff‧ling

Noun

puffling (plural pufflings)

1. A young puffin.
   • 1962, Robert Porter Allen, The Giant Golden Book of Birds: An Introduction to Familiar and Interesting Birds of the World, New York, N.Y.: Golden Press, →OCLC, page 54, column 2:

     These fish are brought to the fluffy little Puffins in their snug nests inside of a burrow or under a slab of rock. The babies are called “Pufflings.”

   • 2006 May 7, “Escape’s picks of the week: The wildlife holiday”, in The Observer‎, London, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 22 September 2014:

     Visit Iceland this August and you could help to rescue pufflings – baby puffins – who get confused by town street lights and crash into towns when leaving their burrows to fly over the Atlantic for the first time.

   • 2007, Katherine Zecca, A Puffin’s Year, [Camden, Me.]: Down East Books, →ISBN:

     Whee-er-er, whee-er-er! the puffling cries because he is hungry. Mama puffin arrives and lays her mouthful of live fish close to the front of the burrow.

   • 2009 September 3, “Kids patrol to help lost puffins”, in CBBC Newsround‎, archived from the original on 6 March 2016:

     When they're old enough the young puffins, or pufflings as they're called, have to fly off to find food.

   • 2012, Arin Murphy-Hiscock, “Puffin”, in Birds: A Spiritual Field Guide: Explore the Symbology & Significance of These Divine Winged Messengers, Avon, Mass.: Adams Media, →ISBN, page 155:

     Both parents feed the infant puffling until it is very fat, then leave the chick, who must make its own way to the sea.

Translations

young puffin

Icelandic: lundapysja f

Further reading

• puffin on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• pluffing