malgas, noun

/ˈmalxas/
Forms:
malagas, malagashShow 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.]
1731 G. Medley tr. of P. Kolben’s Present State of Cape of G.H. II. 143There is a Water-Bird, which is frequently seen on the Sea and on the Rivers about the Cape, and which the Cape-Europeans call Malagos.
1867 E.L. Layard Birds of S. Afr. 379Sula Capensis...Malagash of Colonists...It visits Table Bay in vast numbers in the months of April and May, in pursuit of the shoals of fish that then appear on the surface.
1872 C.A. Payton Diamond Diggings 76Birds were wonderfully numerous, thousands of cormorants,..and two large birds, termed by our natives ‘mollimauks’ and ‘malagasses.’
1906 Stark & Sclater Birds of S. Afr. IV. 17Sula capensis, Malagash.
1906 Stark & Sclater Birds of S. Afr. IV. 19The Malagash is found along the coasts of South Africa.
1913 C. Pettman Africanderisms 306Malagas, Sula capensis. The common gannet of South Africa found round the coast in countless thousands.
1936 E.L. Gill First Guide to S. Afr. Birds 186Malagas, Malgas, Cape gannet; Morus capensis. This is the gannet of the South African guano islands.
1964 J. Bennett Mr Fisherman (1967) 69They were big black and white birds and they wheeled flashing in the sunlight, dropping into the water like bombs. ‘Malgas,’ said the serang.
1974 E. Prov. Herald 7 Nov. 22There are vast colonies of malgas (gannets) and other birds which live off the shoals of fodder fish in our waters.
1985 A. Tredgold Bay between Mountains 16The big malgas, so handsome in its white plumage, with black-tipped wings and yellow-streaked blue head, dives like a plummet from great heights to take its pick of the fish.
1987 [see sterretjie sense 2].
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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Malay, nounn. & adjectiveadj.mali, nounn.
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