Yes, but you don’t think that kewt lil’ bottlenose dolphin doesn’t eat flesh. I think in general usage, killer isn’t just used to describe carnivores apex or not, just maneaters.
It’s ‘lion’ and not ‘killer pussy’
It’s ‘polar bear’ and not ‘killer teddy’
It’s ‘human’ and not ‘killer monkey’
No it’s not
*/\ Now, this is political correctness gone mad /*
By their proper names. There was Namu, and then there was Willy.
I’m “people”. And Orcas have never been whales to me.
I’ve read and studied plenty about marine mammals, mostly from about 1980 to 1984 when I assisted with real live dolphin and whale research.
It was a common trope in the whale-hugging literature of the day to explain the phrase “killer whale” as a corruption of “whale killer”, referring to the fact that orcas are known to pack-attack, kill, and eat even larger whales. There was a rather famous video (by a National Geographic team, IIRC) of a pack of orcas attacking a humpback whale.
The notion of “killer whale” as a corruption of “whale killer” always struck me as an absurd contrivance, promoted by people who wanted to emphasize that orcas are just big cuddly dolphins who would never think of eating their killer monkey friends.
Actually, orcas do seem to be mostly benign towards people. There have been people who made a point of going swimming among wild pods, and they lived to tell about it. In captivity, they become tame and docile – usually. There have been some well publicized exceptions.
Well I’m a Canucks fan so often I will say Fin
GAH! and they call him a Killer Whale. No. He is an Orca. I say Orca, cause I am Canadian, live in Vancouver currently and also in the past and I say Orca. I also say Bison (not Buffalo) and Kraft Dinner (Not Mac n Cheese).
What other animals’ names even begin with “killer”? There are “killer bees” but that’s not the actual English name of the hybrid (and they don’t eat people). In terms of genuine names for animals there is no trend that I can see to use “killer” to mean man-eaters or anything else in particular either.
I’m not sure if these qualify as animals..
You hit my reason for preferring “orca” on the head. Orcas aren’t vicious enough to deserve the appellation “killer.”
At least, they’re not vicious enough to humans. Rhymers don’t care about pinnipeds.
When you’re viscious enough to kill great whites, I say you’ve EARNED it. Either that or Bad-Ass Whales.
You calling orcas thick?
Orca, because I’m lazy and that’s their name in Spanish and Catalan.
hijack: often there’s a bit on Spanish TV (this same week, in fact) about “ballenas” (which refers only to baleen whales, not to all animals called “whale” in English or to all cetaceans) stuck on a beach, but the image doesn’t show ballenas, it shows sperm whales, orcas or bottle-nosed dolphins. Apparently the reporters just can’t be arsed check the images with the text, or don’t know that a humpback whale, a dolphin, an orca and a sperm whale have different names.
I kept reading “viscous” too. I was imagining some kind of blob engulfing unsuspecting sharks.