egret

English

Three great egrets, Ardea alba.

Etymology

From Middle English, from Anglo-Norman egret, aigrette (“egret”), from Old Occitan aigreta, diminutive of aigron (“heron”), from Medieval Latin hairo, from Frankish *haigro (“heron”). Cognate with Old High German heigaro (“heron”), Old English hrāgra (“heron”). Doublet of aigrette. More at heron.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈiːɡɹɪt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈiɡɹɪt/, /ˈiˌɡɹɛt/, /iˈɡɹɛt/, /ˈɛɡɹɪt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːɡɹɪt, -iːɡɹɛt, -ɛt, -ɛɡɹɪt

Noun

egret (plural egrets)

1. Any of various wading birds of the genera Egretta or Ardea that includes herons, many of which are white or buff, and several of which develop fine plumes during the breeding season.
   • 2011, Jesmyn Ward, Salvage the Bones, Bloomsbury (2017), page 64:

     Egrets picked their way through the grass, attentive and showy as fussy girlfriends at the cows' sides.

2. A plume or tuft of feathers worn as a part of a headdress, or anything imitating such an ornament.

   Synonym: aigrette

3. (botany) The flying feathery or hairy crown of seeds or achenes, such as the down of the thistle.
4. (obsolete) The crab-eating macaque (Macaca fascicularis)

Derived terms

• cattle egret
• common egret
• egretlike
• egretry
• great egret
• great white egret
• intermediate egret
• large egret
• little egret
• median egret
• reddish egret
• snowy egret
• western cattle egret
• yellow-billed egret

Related terms

• aigrette

Translations

Any of various wading birds of the genera Egretta or Ardea

• Arabic: أَبُو قِرْدَان m (ʔabū qirdān)

  Egyptian Arabic: أبو قردان m (ʔabō ʔerdān)

• Assamese: বগলী (bogoli), বগ (bog)
• Bengali: বক (bn) (bok)
• Bulgarian: бя́ла ча́пла f (bjála čápla)
• Catalan: agró m (Egretta alba), martinet m (Egretta garzetta)
• Chinese:

  Hokkien: 白鷺 / 白鹭 (pe̍h-lō͘), 白鷺鷥 / 白鹭鸶 (pe̍h-lō͘-si)

  Mandarin: 白鷺 / 白鹭 (zh) (báilù)

• Czech: volavka (cs) f
• Dutch: reiger (nl) m
• Esperanto: egreto
• Finnish: jalohaikara (fi)
• French: aigrette (fr) f
• Galician: garzota f, garza (gl) f
• German: Reiher (de) m
• Greek: τσικνιάς (el) m (tsikniás), χουλιάρι (el) n (chouliári)
• Hungarian: kócsag (hu)
• Irish: éigrit f
• Italian: garzetta (it), airone guardabuoi (it)
• Japanese: 白鷺 (ja) (しらさぎ, shirasagi), シラサギ (ja) (shirasagi)
• Javanese: kuntul (jv)
• Korean: 왜가리 (waegari), 해오라기 (ko) (hae'oragi), 백로(白鷺) (ko) (baengno)
• Malay: bangau (ms)
• Malayalam: വെള്ളരിക്കൊക്ക് (veḷḷarikkokkŭ), കൊക്ക് (ml) (kokkŭ)
• Navajo: toohjįʼ ndiigaii
• Polish: czapla (pl) f
• Portuguese: garça (pt) f
• Rohingya: 𐴁𐴡𐴒𐴝 (boga)
• Romanian: egretă (ro) f, stârc alb m
• Russian: бе́лая ца́пля f (bélaja cáplja), ца́пля (ru) f (cáplja)
• Spanish: garza (es) f (Ardea), garceta (es) f (Egretta)
• Vietnamese: cò (vi)
• Welsh: crëyr m, aderyn y bwn m, adar y bwn m pl
• Wolof: xodd gi

See also

• heron

Further reading

• egret on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Geter, greet, reget