Definition

Noun: 1. A social meeting or congregation of whales, especially whaling ships at sea: The primary meaning refers to a group of whales, particularly sperm whales, gathered together. Historically, it also referred to a friendly meeting between two or more whaling ships at sea.

Usage

• The term is a collective noun specifically for whales.
• It is a specialized term from the jargon of 19th-century whaling.
• It is rarely used in modern everyday English outside of historical or nautical contexts.

Examples

• The lookout spotted a gam of sperm whales on the horizon.
• In Herman Melville's , the Pequod has a gam with another whaling ship, the Albatross.
• The old whaler's journal described encountering a large gam in the South Pacific.

Advanced Usage

• The verb form "to gam" means for whaling ships to meet at sea for social interaction and exchange of news.
  • The two vessels decided to gam for the afternoon, sharing supplies and letters.

Variants and Related Words

• Pod: A more common modern collective noun for a group of whales, dolphins, or porpoises.
• School: A general collective noun for a large group of fish or marine animals, sometimes used for whales.
• Herd: A general collective noun for large animals, applicable to whales (as in the reference definition).

Synonyms

• Pod
• School (of whales)
• Herd (of whales)

Noun

1. a herd of whales