小故事助你记住鸟类名字_故事

小故事助你记住鸟类名字

A large number of birds received their names through the imitation of their cries. The cuckoo is an obvious example of such an onomatopoeic naming, and so are the owl, the cockatiel, and many more. Some bird names, however, have a more intriguing linguistic history. Here we take a look at a few examples.

许多鸟类的名字是通过它们的叫声模拟得来的。杜鹃鸟(又名布谷鸟-cuckoo)的名字是一个明显的拟声词,同样还有猫头鹰(owl),澳洲鹦鹉(cockatiel)等等。然而，另一些鸟类名字的来源则有一个更有趣的语言的历史。在这里,我们看看几个例子。

Magpie--喜鹊

The magpie was earlier known as the maggoty-pie or maggot-the-pie, of which magpie is probably a shortening. Here, maggot, or later mag, is an obsolete pet-form of the female forenames Margery and Margaret. The second element, pie, derives from Latin pica。

喜鹊,喜鹊最初被称为maggoty-pie或maggot-the-pie，magpie是一个缩写词。在这里，maggot(后来简写作mag)是一个老式的女性名字Margery(玛杰里)和Margaret(玛格丽特)的昵称形式。第二个部分pie源自拉丁词汇pica。

Albatross--信天翁

The albatross received its name from the alcatras, a frigate bird of similar appearance with which the oceanic bird was confused. According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the alteration of the firstsyllable alca occurred by folk-etymological association with classical Latin albus ‘white’ in reference to the predominant colour of the plumage of many species of albatross.