murciélago

Spanish

FWOTD – 4 February 2013

Alternative forms

• morziegalo (archaic)
• murciégalo (obsolete or nonstandard outside New Mexico)

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *múHs

Proto-Italic *mūs

Latin mūs

Proto-Indo-European *kéh₂ikos

Proto-Italic *kaikos

Latin caecus

Vulgar Latin mūrem caecum

Old Spanish murciegoder.

Spanish murciélago

Metathetic form of earlier murciégalo, a diminutive of Old Spanish murciego, from Vulgar Latin *mūrem caecum (literally “blind mouse”). Compare Galician and Portuguese morcego.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /muɾˈθjelaɡo/ [muɾˈθje.la.ɣ̞o] (Equatorial Guinea, Spain)
• IPA^(key): /muɾˈsjelaɡo/ [muɾˈsje.la.ɣ̞o] (Latin America, Philippines)

• Audio (Spain):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -elaɡo
• Syllabification: mur‧cié‧la‧go

Noun

murciélago m (plural murciélagos, feminine murciélaga, feminine plural murciélagas)

1. bat (any flying mammal of the order Chiroptera)

   Synonyms: quiróptero, panarra, (New Mexico) ratón volador

   • 1800, Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, chapter 12, in Historia General del Perú:

     ...adoraban al buho por la hermosura de sus ojos y cabeza, y al murciélago por la sutileza de su vista...

     ...they adored the owl for the prettiness of its eyes and head, and the bat for the subtlety of its sight...

Derived terms

• murciélago escarchado
• murciélago mastín
• murciélago negruzco
• murciélago vampiro

Further reading

• “murciélago”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025