means A small, stout North Atlantic seabird with a brightly colored triangular bill, known for nesting in cliffside burrows and ferrying mouthfuls of fish back to its young.

from Oddly, the name didn't start with the bird we now picture. "Puffin" comes from Middle English words like "poffin" or "pophyn," which referred to the cured, fatty carcass of a young seabird — likely the Manx shearwater, a different chick entirely — that was eaten as a delicacy. The word is thought to be linked to "puff," describing the swollen, fattened look of the plump fledgling. Over time the name drifted onto the clown-faced bird we call a puffin today, leaving the original eaten chick behind.