PREFERRED TERM
Pelican
DEFINITION
- n. From the post-classical Latin "pelicanus" "pelecanus" "pellicanus". The representation of any of various large, gregarious, fish-eating waterbirds constituting the family Pelecanidae and genus Pelecanus, typically with mainly white or grey plumage, and having a long hooked bill with a greatly distensible pouch hanging below it, used to scoop up fish. In Christianity it has a powerful sense with reference to the fable that the pelican revives or feeds its young with its own blood, understood as a figuration of Christ as reviver of the dead in spirit by his blood.
BROADER CONCEPT
- wd:Q55406557 (Silk Heritage Thesaurus)
- Zoomorphic
BIBLIOGRAPHIC CITATION
- Simpson, John; Weiner, Edmund (eds). The Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford : Clarendon Press ; Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1989. [www.oed.com]
BELONGS TO GROUP
IN OTHER LANGUAGES
Pélican
French
Pellicano
Italian
Pelícano
Spanish
URI
http://data.silknow.org/vocabulary/823
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