Also 8–9 -elot. [a. F. cachalot, in the Bayonne dial. of 17th c. cachalut, app. meaning, ‘toothed,’ from a Romanic word for ‘tooth’ or ‘grinder,’ in Gascon cachau, Carcassone caichal, Cat. caxal, Pr. dials. caissal, caysal. The first notice of the word in Eng. writers is quoted from the French of Anderson’s Histoire Naturelle de Island, etc. (Hamburg, 1746). The word is now found in most European langs., as Ger. kachalot, Da. kaskelot, Sw. kaselot, Du. kazilot, etc.
(In Miscellanea Curiosa, 1670 (Frankfort, and Leipzig, 1681), observation cxxxvi. (p. 266) treats of this whale ‘qui in Bayonna, Byaris, et in insula S. Johannis de Luca, et in locis ubi capitur Cachalut, latine Orca dicitur.’) A different derivation is proposed by Zobler, Zeitsch. f. Rom. Philol., IV. 176, whereby he would connect it with Sp. cachuelo, which derives from L. catulus.]
A genus of whales, belonging to the family Catodontidæ, distinguished by the presence of teeth in the lower jaw. The Common Cachalot, or Sperm Whale, which yields spermaceti, grows to the length of 70 feet, and has a head nearly one-half of the length of the body; it occurs in all seas, but its home is the Pacific Ocean.
1747. Gentl. Mag., XVII. 174. The figure which Mr. Anderson gives of the Cachelot … has the air of a monster.
1769. Pennant, Zool., III. 46. This genus … the French call Cachalot, a name we have adopted.
1832. Lyell, Princ. Geol., II. 279. A herd of Cachalots, upwards of one hundred in number, were found stranded at Kairston, Orkney.
1833. Sir C. Bell, Hand (1834), 298. The physeter or cachelot whale … has a very large head and is remarkable for having teeth.
1847. Carpenter, Zool., § 213.
