nightingale
See also: Nightingale
English
[edit]
Pronunciation
[edit]Etymology 1
[edit]Inherited from Middle English nyghtyngale, nightingale, niȝtingale, alteration (with intrusive n) of nyghtgale, nightegale, from Old English nihtegala, nihtegale (“nightingale; night-raven”, literally “night-singer”), from Proto-West Germanic *nahtigalā (“nightingale”), equivalent to a compound of night + gale. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Noachtegoal (“nightingale”), Dutch nachtegaal (“nightingale”), German Low German Nachtigall (“nightingale”), German Nachtigall (“nightingale”), Danish nattergal (“thrush nightingale”), Swedish näktergal (“nightingale”), Icelandic næturgali (“nightingale”).
Noun
[edit]nightingale (plural nightingales)
- A Eurasian and African songbird, Luscinia megarhynchos, family Muscicapidae, famed for its beautiful singing at night; a common nightingale.
- c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene v], page 68, column 2:
- Wilt thou be gone? It is not yet neere day: / It was the Nightingale, and not the Larke, / That pier'ſt the fearefull hollow of thine eare
- 1769, Firishta, translated by Alexander Dow, Tales translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi, volume I, Dublin: P. and W. Wilson et al., page v:
- Some admired the external beauties of the objects they beheld, like the nightingale in love with the roſe.
- 1826, [Mary Shelley], chapter V, in The Last Man. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC:
- The oaks around were the home of a tribe of nightingales.
- 1859, Edward Fitzgerald, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: The Astronomer-Poet of Persia, page 2:
- And David's Lips are lock't; but in divine
High piping Péhlevi, with "Wine! Wine! Wine!
Red Wine!" — the Nightingale cries to the Rose
That yellow Cheek of her's to'incarnadine.
- 1936, F.J. Thwaites, chapter XXII, in The Redemption, Sydney: H. John Edwards, published 1940, page 222:
- The air, too, was heavy with perfume, and a nightingale, high in the heavens, gave out a cheery song of welcome.
Synonyms
[edit]Derived terms
[edit]- Ceylon nightingale
- Chinese nightingale
- common nightingale
- Dutch nightingale
- fen nightingale
- Indian nightingale
- Irish nightingale
- Japanese nightingale
- mock nightingale
- nightingale finch
- nightingale floor
- nightingale of the East
- nightingale-thrush
- nightingale-wren
- Palestine nightingale
- Persian nightingale
- Scotch nightingale
- thrush nightingale
- Virginia nightingale
Translations
[edit]bird
|
Etymology 2
[edit]Named after Florence Nightingale.
Noun
[edit]nightingale (plural nightingales)
Anagrams
[edit]Middle English
[edit]Noun
[edit]nightingale
- alternative form of nyghtyngale
Categories:
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- English compound terms
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- English eponyms
- en:Muscicapids
- Middle English alternative forms