Front matter
Etymology
The etymology gathers old words for whale and turns language itself into the book's first whale-hunt.
Why it mattersThis frontmatter prepares students for the novel's method. Moby-Dick will chase the whale through plot, science, religion, myth, and language, and none of those approaches will be complete by itself.
The pale Usher—threadbare in coat, heart, body, and brain; I see him now. He was ever dusting his old lexicons and grammars, with a queer handkerchief, mockingly embellished with all the gay flags of all the known nations of the world. He loved to dust his old grammars; it somehow mildly reminded him of his mortality.
“While you take in hand to school others, and to teach them by what name a whale-fish is to be called in our tongue, leaving out, through ignorance, the letter H, which almost alone maketh up the signification of the word, you deliver that which is not true.”
Hackluyt.
“ Whale . … Sw. and Dan. hval . This animal is named from roundness or rolling; for in Dan. hvalt is arched or vaulted.”
Webster’s Dictionary.
“ Whale . … It is more immediately from the Dut. and Ger. Wallen ; a.s. Walw-ian , to roll, to wallow.”
Richardson’s Dictionary.
חן
Hebrew.
Κητος
Greek.
Cetus
Latin.
Whœl
Anglo-Saxon.
Hvalt
Danish.
Wal
Dutch.
Hwal
Swedish.
Whale
Icelandic.
Whale
English.
Baleine
French.
Ballena
Spanish.
Pekee-nuee-nuee
Fiji.
Pehee-nuee-nuee
Erromangoan.