alcatraz
alcatraz Lexical Profile
• noun
A small, rocky island located in San Francisco Bay, California, United States, famous for having served as a military fortification and a maximum-security federal penitentiary from 1934 to 1963.
"Before becoming a tourist attraction, Alcatraz housed some of the most notorious federal prisoners in American history."
An archaic or historical name for various large, web-footed marine birds of the order Pelecaniformes or Suliformes, especially the brown pelican, the gannet, the frigatebird, or the albatross.
"Sixteenth-century Spanish and English mariners frequently recorded sightings of the alcatraz diving for fish along the Pacific coast."
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed from Spanish and Portuguese alcatraz ('pelican' or 'gannet'), which derives from Arabic al-ġaṭṭās ('the diver' or 'sea eagle'). The word is also the historical etymological ancestor of the English word 'albatross'.
Usage Trend
Historical frequency of usage in published text.