curlew

English

A curlew

Etymology

From Middle English curlew, from Old French courlieu (see French courlis), claimed to be imitative of the bird's cry but apparently assimilated with dialectal *corliu (“runner, messenger”), a variant of coureur (the bird is adept at running).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɜːlju/, /ˈkɜːlu/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɝlu/

Noun

curlew (plural curlews)

1. Any of several migratory wading birds in the genus Numenius of the family Scolopacidae, remarkable for their long, slender, downcurved bills.
2. (Australia) A stone curlew.
   • 1902, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Bush Studies (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 16:

     That quivering wail from the billabong lying murkily mystic towards the East was only the cry of the fearing curlew.

Derived terms

• beach stone-curlew
• bristle-thighed curlew, Numenius tahitiensis
• bush stone-curlew
• eastern curlew, Numenius madagascariensis
• Eskimo curlew, Numenius borealis
• Eurasian curlew, Numenius arquata
• Eurasian stone-curlew
• great stone-curlew
• Hudsonian curlew
• little curlew, Numenius minutus
• long-billed curlew, Numenius americanus
• slender-billed curlew, Numenius tenuirostris
• stone-curlew

 

Translations

migratory wading bird

• Albanian: kojlik (sq) m, kllinzë (sq) f
• Arabic: كَرَوَان m (karawān)

  Egyptian Arabic: كروان m (karawan)

• Asturian: algaraván (ast), zarapicu (ast)
• Catalan: becut m, polit (ca) m
• Czech: koliha (cs) f
• Dutch: wulp (nl)
• Esperanto: kurlo, numenio
• Finnish: kuovi (fi)
• French: courlis (fr) m
• Galician: mazarico m
• German: Brachvogel m
• Greek: νουμήνιος m (noumínios), (colloquial:) τουρλί (turli) n, τουρλίδα f (tourlída)
• Hebrew: חֶרְמְשׁוֹן
• Hungarian: póling (hu)
• Ingrian: sookulikka, vihmakulli, vesikulli
• Irish: crotach m, cuirliún m
• Italian: chiurlo (it) m
• Latvian: kuitila
• Lithuanian: kuolinga (lt)
• Navajo: daakʼį́į́ʼ
• Norman: couorlieu m
• Nyunga: weerlow
• Polish: kulik (pl) m, kulig (pl) m
• Portuguese: maçarico (pt) m
• Romanian: corlă (ro) f, găinușă-de-baltă (ro) f
• Russian: кроншне́п (ru) m (kronšnép)
• Scots: whaup
• Scottish Gaelic: guilbneach m
• Spanish: zarapito (es) m
• Venetian: arcasa f
• Welsh: gylfinir m

See also

• curlew sandpiper
• stone curlew

Middle English

Alternative forms

• curlewe, curlue, curlu, curlowe, curleeu, corlew, corlewe, corlue, kurlu, kurlew

Etymology

From Old French courlieu.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kurˈliu̯/, /ˈkurliu̯/

Noun

curlew (plural curlewes)

1. curlew
2. quail

Descendants

• English: curlew

References

• “curleu, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-03-09.