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bittern (BIT-ern) - n., any of several small to medium sized herons of the genera Botaurus and Ixobrychus, usually mottled brown and secretive in nature, with a deep booming cry.
Small necks for herons, too. The word has an interesting history, having entered the language in the 1510s as bitter/bittor/bitoure, the -n getting added later possibly under the influence of heron or tern, from Anglo-French bytore/butor, from conjectured Gallic Vulgar Latin *būtitaurus, believed to be from a bird cited by Pliny as having a booming cry traditionally identified with the bittern, from buteo, hawk/buzzard + taurus, bull -- the bull part being for the cry.
---L.
Small necks for herons, too. The word has an interesting history, having entered the language in the 1510s as bitter/bittor/bitoure, the -n getting added later possibly under the influence of heron or tern, from Anglo-French bytore/butor, from conjectured Gallic Vulgar Latin *būtitaurus, believed to be from a bird cited by Pliny as having a booming cry traditionally identified with the bittern, from buteo, hawk/buzzard + taurus, bull -- the bull part being for the cry.
---L.
