Question #119773. Asked by
star_gazer.
Last updated Oct 17 2016.
For good measure, I queried several whale experts - Professor C. Scott Baker of the OSU Dept. of Fisheries and Wildlife, John Calambokidis, senior research biologist and co-founder of Cascadia Research, Phillip Clapham of the National Marine Mammal Laboratory and author Richard Ellis (The Book of Whales, Men and Whales, Encyclopedia of the Sea, etc.) - all of whom told me they had never seen nor heard the word dork used in reference to a whale's reproductive anatomy - ever.
Lastly, in answer to those who have tried to rebut these findings by arguing that if enough people use the word dork to mean "whale penis" then it's a valid definition, here's what's wrong with that argument. The phenomenon we're discussing isn't people using the word that way — nobody really does! — the phenomenon is people claiming that dork means "whale penis" on the basis of no empirical evidence whatsoever.
Actually,, I believe the "whale" definition is simply a common, incorrect definition. About a year ago I had a bet with a friend regarding the "whale" definition. After, believe it or not, a conversation with a marine biologist at Scripps, we determined that "dork" never referred to any scientific description of a whale member. It does refer to penis generally though. How it got mis-applied to whales specifically is an oddity.
|
|