Word: tilikum
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What led the killer whale Tilikum to attack and kill one of his SeaWorld trainers in Orlando, Fla., will not be known until behavioral records from the days and weeks preceding the incident are examined. But one thing is clear: the attack was violent and bloody, perpetrated with viciousness by a member of one of the smartest of ocean species...
...Tilikum did not just knock Dawn Brancheau over and drag her down to drown at the bottom of the pool. According to a source, he rose out of the water to snag Brancheau by her ponytail, yanking her into the water for two brief but shocking episodes in the pool. After grabbing her by her hair, he toyed with her underwater for two minutes as she struggled to use trainer signals to calm him down and get him to release her. He knocked her about and, according to some reports, had her by the waist, her blood spreading through...
...still alive at the end of the first takedown after Tilikum let her go. But he watched as she tried to get to safety and then grabbed her again and held her for another minute underwater, this time apparently killing her. He then settled at the bottom of the pool, keeping her in his mouth. She apparently remained there until the staff at SeaWorld managed to beach him and move him to a separate pen. No one at SeaWorld was available to confirm reports that Brancheau's body was badly mangled. (See a 2006 story about a killer-whale attack...
...tongue has fallen into almost complete disuse within the past generation or two, and most of the residents of the Pacific Northwest know nothing of it beyond the few words that have gone into everyday colloquial English use in that region [such as]: skookum, siwash, tilikum, cultus and cheechako...
...Skookum: powerful, strong; siwash: savage, uncivilized; tilikum: common people; cultus: of little worth...