lechuza

Spanish

Etymology

The Latin word was noctua (“owl”, literally “night bird”), which would have created Old Spanish *notua or *nochuza. Lechuza apparently resulted from a cross between Old Spanish *nochuza and leche (“milk”), due to the popular belief at the time that owls came at night to give babies milk.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Spain) /leˈt͡ʃuθa/ [leˈt͡ʃu.θa]
• IPA^(key): (Latin America) /leˈt͡ʃusa/ [leˈt͡ʃu.sa]

• Audio (Spain):

  (file)

• (Spain) Rhymes: -uθa
• (Latin America) Rhymes: -usa
• Syllabification: le‧chu‧za

Noun

lechuza f (plural lechuzas)

1. owl
2. barn owl (any species of owl from the family Tytonidae)

Coordinate terms

• búho

Derived terms

• lechuza blanca
• lechuza común
• lechuza negra
• lechuza tenebrosa
• lechuzo

 

Further reading

• “lechuza”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014
• lechuza on the Spanish Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^es