Editing Great auk (section)

===Etymology===
[[File:Great Auk Thomas Bewick 1804.jpg|thumb|upright|The "Great Auk, Northern Penguin, or Gair-Fowl", [[wood engraving]] by [[Thomas Bewick]] in ''[[A History of British Birds]]'', 1804{{efn|Bewick stated "This species is not numerous any where: it inhabits Norway, Iceland, The Ferro Islands, Greenland, and other cold regions of the north, but is seldom seen on the British shores."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bewick |first1=Thomas |title=A History of British Birds |series=Vol. 2: Water Birds |date=1847 |orig-year=1804 |publisher=R.E. Bewick |location=Newcastle |pages=405–406}}</ref>}}]]
The great auk was one of the 4,400 animal species formally described by [[Carl Linnaeus]] in his eighteenth-century work ''[[10th edition of Systema Naturae|Systema Naturae]]'', in which it was given the binomial ''Alca impennis''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Linnaeus |first=C. |author-link=Carl Linnaeus| title=Systema naturae| volume=I| page=130 |publisher=Lars Salvius |location=Stockholm |year=1758 |language=la}}</ref> The name ''Alca'' is a Latin derivative of the Scandinavian word for razorbills and their relatives.<ref name="Johnsgard"/> The bird was known in literature even before this and was described by [[Carolus Clusius|Charles d'Ecluse]] in 1605 as ''Mergus Americanus.'' This also included a woodcut which represents the oldest unambiguous visual depictions of the bird.<ref name=LozoyaGarcía2016>{{cite journal |last1=Lozoya |first1=Arturo Valledor De |last2=García |first2=David González |last3=Parish|first3=Jolyon |date=2016-04-01 |title=A great auk for the Sun King |journal=Archives of Natural History |language=en |volume=43 |issue=1 |pages=41–56 |doi=10.3366/anh.2016.0345}}</ref>

The species was not placed in its own scientific [[genus]], ''Pinguinus'', until 1791.<ref name="Gaskell" /> The generic name is derived from the Spanish, Portuguese and French name for the species, in turn from Latin {{Lang|la|pinguis}} meaning "plump", and the [[specific name (zoology)|specific name]], ''impennis'', is from [[Latin]] and refers to the lack of [[flight feather]]s, or ''pennae''.<ref name="Johnsgard">{{cite book |last=Johnsgard |first=Paul A. |author-link=Paul Johnsgard |title=Diving Birds of North America |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |location=Lincoln |year=1987 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/divingbirdsofnor0000john/page/265 265–266] |isbn=0-8032-2566-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/divingbirdsofnor0000john/page/265 |access-date=11 May 2010 |url-access=registration }}</ref>

The [[Irish language|Irish]] name for the great auk is {{Lang|ga|falcóg mhór}}, meaning "big seabird/auk". The [[Basque language|Basque]] name is ''{{Lang|eu|arponaz}}'', meaning "spearbill". Its early [[French language|French]] name was ''apponatz'', while modern French uses ''{{Lang|fr|grand pingouin}}''. The [[Vikings|Norse]] called the great auk ''geirfugl'', which means "spearbird". This has led to an alternative English common name for the bird, ''garefowl'' or ''gairfowl''.<ref name=Cokinos2000>{{cite book |last=Cokinos |first=Christopher |author-link=Christopher Cokinos |title=Hope is the Thing with Feathers: A personal chronicle of vanished birds |place=New York |publisher=Warner Books |year=2000 |isbn=0-446-67749-3}}</ref>{{rp|page=333}} The [[Inuit]] name for the great auk was ''isarukitsok'', which meant "little wing".<ref name=Cokinos2000/>{{rp|page=314}}

The word "penguin" first appears in the sixteenth century as a synonym for "great auk".<ref name="CNRTL">{{cite web|url=http://www.cnrtl.fr/etymologie/pingouin |title=Pingouin: Etymologie de Pingouin |publisher=Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales|access-date=25 January 2010}}</ref> Although the etymology is debated, the generic name "penguin" may be derived from the [[Welsh language|Welsh]] ''pen gwyn'' "white head", either because the birds lived in New Brunswick on [[White Head Island]] (Pen Gwyn in Welsh) or because the great auk had such large white circles on its head. When European explorers discovered what today are known as [[penguin]]s in the Southern Hemisphere, they noticed their [[convergent evolution|similar appearance]] to the great auk and named them after this bird, although biologically, they are not closely related.<ref name=Crofford_1989>{{cite book |last=Crofford |first=Emily |title=Gone Forever: The Great Auk |place=New York |publisher=Crestwood House |year=1989 |isbn=0-89686-459-6 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/greatauk0000crof}}</ref>{{rp|page=10}} [[Whaling|Whalers]] also lumped the northern and southern birds together under the common name "woggins".<ref name="Giaimo">{{cite web
 | url =http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/whats-a-woggin-a-bird-a-word-and-a-linguistic-mystery
 | title =What's A Woggin? A Bird, a Word, and a Linguistic Mystery
 | last =Giaimo
 | first =Cara
 | date =26 October 2016
 | website =[[Atlas Obscura]]
 | access-date =2 December 2016
 | quote =Whalers wrote about woggins all the time. What in the world were they?}}</ref>