Episode 164: Somewhere in the Middle
The History of English Podcast
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Penguin Island
Penguin is a Welsh word, one of the few Welsh words that's been borrowed into modern English. Penguins only live in the region around Antarctica in the southern hemisphere. They don't live in the Arctic in the northern hemisphere. So how is it possible that Gilbert's men saw penguins on the islands around Newfoundland? Well the answer is that there was once a completely different bird that lived in the north which has since become extinct and the word penguin was originally applied to that northern bird.
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