| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| albatross |
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| SYLLABICATION: | al·ba·tross |
| PRONUNCIATION: |   l b -trôs , -tr s |
| NOUN: | Inflected forms: pl. albatross or al·ba·tross·es
1. Any of several large web-footed birds constituting the family Diomedeidae, chiefly of the oceans of the Southern Hemisphere, and having a hooked beak and long narrow wings. 2a. A constant, worrisome burden. b. An obstacle to success. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Probably alteration (influenced by Latin albus, white) of alcatras, pelican, from Portuguese or Spanish alcatraz, from Arabic al- a  s : al-, the + as, diver, sea eagle (from aasa, to plunge, dive; see s in Appendix II). Sense 2, after the albatross in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, which the mariner killed and had to wear around his neck as a penance.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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