Portuguese man-of-war

Portuguese man-of-war

English

Etymology

A Portuguese man-of-war (Physalia physalis; sense 1).

From Portuguese (adjective) +‎ man-of-war,[1] from the resemblance of the organism’s float to a former Portuguese warship at full sail.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɔː.tʃʊˌɡiːz ˌmæn.ə(v)ˈwɔː/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpoɹ.tʃəˌɡiz ˌmæn.ə(v)ˈwoɹ/, /ˈpoɹ-/, /ˈmæn-/
• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: Por‧tu‧guese man-of-war

Noun

Portuguese man-of-war (plural Portuguese men-of-war)

1. Physalia physalis, a marine cnidarian consisting of a floating colony of hydrozoans attached to a float, superficially resembling a jellyfish.

   Synonyms: bluebottle, man-of-war

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see Portuguese,‎ man-of-war.

Usage notes

• Added capitalization, loss of hyphens, and reduction of of to o or o’ are common.

Alternative forms

• Portuguese man-o-war, Portuguese man-o'-war

Translations

Physalia physalis

Catalan: borm de vela m, caravel·la portuguesa f Cebuano: salabay Chinese: Mandarin: 僧帽水母 (sēngmào shuǐmǔ) Danish: Portugisisk orlogsmand c Dutch: Portugees oorlogsschip n Finnish: portugalinsotalaiva (fi) French: galère portugaise f, physalie (fr) f, vessie de mer (fr) f Galician: carabela f German: Portugiesische Galeere (de) f Hungarian: portugál gálya Indonesian: ubur-ubur api Irish: smugairle an tseoil m Italian: caravella portoghese f Japanese: 鰹の烏帽子 (かつおのえぼし, katsuo no eboshi), カツオノエボシ (katsuo no eboshi) Korean: 작은부레관해파리 (jageunburegwanhaepari), 고깔해파리 (gokkalhaepari) Malay: ubur-ubur api Maori: katiaho, ihumoana Norwegian: Bokmål: portugisisk krigsskip n Polish: aretuza f, bąbelnica bąbelcowa f, żeglarz portugalski m Portuguese: caravela-portuguesa f Russian: португа́льский вое́нный кора́блик m (portugálʹskij vojénnyj koráblik), португа́льский кора́блик m (portugálʹskij koráblik), физа́лия (ru) f (fizálija) Spanish: carabela portuguesa f Swedish: blåsmanet, portugisisk örlogsman (sv) Welsh: chwysigen fôr

See also

• siphonophore

References

1. “Portuguese man-of-war, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2022; “Portuguese man-of-war, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

• Portuguese man o' war on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Physalia physalis on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
• Physalia physalis on Wikispecies.Wikispecies