morepork or mopoke, also boobook

morepork (MOHR-pohrk) or mopoke (MOH-pohk) - n., a small spotted owl (Ninox novaeseelandiae) of Australia and New Zealand; (Aust./NZ slang) a slow, lazy, or foolish person.


In New Zealand, also called ruru, and in Australia, Tasmanian spotted owl -- as well as boobook. At the moment, after much threshing this out, ornithologists currently consider the morepork distinct from all other species of genus Ninox, many of which are called boobooks. Which gives you a bonus word:


boobook (BOO-book) - n., any of several species of small spotted owl (genus Ninox) of Australia, New Zealand, and sometimes surrounding islands.


Dictionaries say that both names are imitative of the birds' calls, even though both names are used for the same bird -- one asserts that boobook is via the Dharuk name bokbok, which is imitative. So yeah IDK. Here's a morepork of the bird variety:


Thanks, WikiMedia!

---L.