malgas, noun
/ˈmalxas/
- Forms:
- Show more Also malagas, malagash, malagos.
- Plurals:
- unchanged, or malgases.
- Origin:
- Afrikaans, South African Dutch, PortugueseShow more Afrikaans, earlier South African Dutch, adaptation of and transferred use of Portuguese mangas de veludo ‘sleeves of velvet’ (alluding to the bird’s black wing tips), the wandering albatross, Diomedea exulans.
The large marine bird Morus capensis of the Sulidae, white, with a strikingly coloured head and black wing tips; Cape gannet, see Cape sense 2 a. Also attributive.
[1611 P. Floris in R. Raven-Hart Before Van Riebeeck (1967) 55Wee sawe dyvers foules that keepe aboute the cape; which we had not seene att sea before, as mangas de veludo.]
The large marine bird Morus capensis of the Sulidae, white, with a strikingly coloured head and black wing tips; Cape gannet, see Cape sense 2 a. Also attributive.
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