ostrich

English

An ostrich and chick (probably )

Etymology

From Middle English ostrich, ostriche, ostryche, ostrige, borrowed from Anglo-Norman ostrige and Old French ostruce, from Vulgar Latin *austruthio, from Latin avis (“bird”) + strūthiō (“ostrich”), from Ancient Greek στρουθίων (strouthíōn), or shortened from strūthiocamēlus, from Ancient Greek στρουθιοκάμηλος (strouthiokámēlos), from στρουθός (strouthós, “sparrow”) + κάμηλος (kámēlos, “camel”). Compare Spanish avestruz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɒs.tɹɪt͡ʃ/, /ˈɒs.tɹɪd͡ʒ/; enPR: ŏs'trĭch, ŏs'trĭj
• IPA^(key): /ˈɔs.tɹɪt͡ʃ/, /ˈɑs.tɹɪt͡ʃ/, /ˈɔs.tɹɪd͡ʒ/, /ˈɑs.tɹɪd͡ʒ/; enPR: ôs'trĭch, ŏs'trĭch, ôs'trĭj, ŏs'trĭj

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (US) (2):

  (file)

Noun

ostrich (plural ostriches)

1. A large flightless bird (Struthio camelus) native to Africa.
   • 2013 July 26, Nick Miroff, “Mexico gets a taste for eating insects […] ”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 7, page 32:

     The San Juan market is Mexico City's most famous deli of exotic meats, where an adventurous shopper can hunt down hard-to-find critters such as ostrich, wild boar and crocodile.

2. (figurative) One who buries one's head in the sand instead of acknowledging problems

Derived terms

• American ostrich (Rhea americana)
• Arabian ostrich (†)
• Asian ostrich (†)
• Barbary ostrich ()
• black-necked ostrich ()
• blue-necked ostrich (Struthio molybdophanes)
• Cape ostrich ()
• common ostrich (Struthio camelus)
• East African ostrich ()
• Masai ostrich ()
• North African ostrich ()
• ostrichlike
• ostrich politics
• ostrichism
• pink-necked ostrich ()
• red-necked ostrich ()
• Somali ostrich (Struthio molybdophanes)
• South African ostrich ()
• southern ostrich ()
• Syrian ostrich (†)

Translations

large flightless bird

• Afrikaans: volstruis (af)
• Albanian: struci
• Arabic: نَعَامَة f (naʕāma)

  Egyptian Arabic: نعام m (naʿām) (collective), نعامة f (naʿāma) (singulative)

• Armenian: ջայլամ (hy) (ǰaylam)

  Middle Armenian: իշտրմուղ (ištrmuġ), ջայլամ (ǰaylam)

  Old Armenian: ջայլամն (ǰaylamn), ջայլեամն (ǰayleamn)

• Assamese: উটপক্ষী (utpokhi), উট চৰাই (ut sorai)
• Asturian: avestruz f
• Avar: варанихӏинчӏ (waraniḥʳinčʼ)
• Azerbaijani: dəvəquşu (az)
• Basque: ostruka (eu)
• Belarusian: стра́ус m (stráus)
• Bengali: উটপাখী (uṭpakhi)
• Breton: struskańval
• Bulgarian: щра́ус (bg) m (štráus)
• Burmese: ငှက်ကုလားအုတ် (my) (hngakku.la:ut)
• Catalan: estruç m
• Cherokee: ᎬᎾ ᎤᏔᎾ (gvna utana)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 鴕鳥／鸵鸟 (to⁴ niu⁵), 鸵鸟 (to⁴ niu⁵)

  Hakka: 鴕鳥／鸵鸟, 鸵鸟 (thò-niâu)

  Mandarin: 鴕鳥／鸵鸟 (zh) (tuóniǎo), 鸵鸟 (zh) (tuóniǎo)

  Min Nan: 鴕鳥／鸵鸟 (zh-min-nan), 鸵鸟 (tô-chiáu), 蹄鳥／蹄鸟, 蹄鸟 (tê-chiáu), 長頷鳥／长颔鸟, 长颔鸟 (tn̂g-ām-chiáu)

• Czech: pštros (cs)
• Danish: struds (da)
• Dutch: struisvogel (nl) m
• Erzya: дуенармунь (dujenarmuń)
• Esperanto: struto
• Estonian: jaanalind (et)
• Faroese: strutsur
• Finnish: strutsi (fi)
• French: autruche (fr) f
• Friulian: struç
• Galician: avestruz (gl) f
• Georgian: სირაქლემა (siraklema)
• German: Strauß (de) m, Vogelstrauß m
• Greek: στρουθοκάμηλος (el) f (strouthokámilos)

  Ancient: στρουθοκάμηλος (strouthokámēlos)

• Hausa: jimina
• Hebrew: יַעַן (he) f (ya'an)
• Hindi: शुतुरमुर्ग़ m (śuturmurġ), शुतुरमुर्ग (hi) m (śuturmurg), शुतुर्मुर्ग (hi) m (śuturmurg)
• Hungarian: strucc (hu)
• Icelandic: strútur (is)
• Ido: strucho (io)
• Indonesian: burung unta (id)
• Interlingua: avestruthio
• Irish: ostrais, struth m, struth-chamhall m
• Italian: struzzo (it) m
• Japanese: ダチョウ (ja) (dachō), 駝鳥 (ja) (だちょう, dachō), オーストリッチ (ōsutoritchi)
• Kazakh: түйеқұс (tüieqūs)
• Korean: 타조 (ko) (tajo)
• Kyrgyz: төө куш (ky) (töö kuş)
• Ladin: struz
• Latin: struthiocamelus m, struthio m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Latvian: strauss m
• Lithuanian: strutis (lt) m
• Low German: Struus m
• Macedonian: ној m (noj)
• Malay: burung unta
• Malayalam: ഒട്ടകപക്ഷി (oṭṭakapakṣi)
• Maltese: nagħma f, ostriċ
• Maori: otereti
• Mongolian: тэмээн хяруул (temeen xjaruul)
• Navajo: tsídiitsoh
• Norman: autruche f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: struts (no) m

  Nynorsk: struts (nn) m

• Occitan: estruci (oc)
• Old English: strūta m
• Old Norse: strúz m
• Pashto: شترمرغ (ps) m (šotormórǧ), اوښمرغه (ps) m (uӽmǝrǧǝ́)
• Persian: شترمرغ (fa) (šotormorğ)
• Polish: struś (pl) m anim
• Portuguese: avestruz (pt)
• Romani: astrechi m, barimatango m
• Romanian: struț (ro) m
• Romansch: strut
• Russian: стра́ус (ru) m (stráus)
• Sardinian: abistrussu, bistrussu, istrutzu
• Scottish Gaelic: struth
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: но̏ј m

  Roman: nȍj (sh) m

• Slovak: pštros m
• Slovene: noj (sl) m
• Somali: gorayo
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: štrus m

  Upper Sorbian: štrus m

• Sotho: mpjhe
• Spanish: avestruz (es) m
• Swahili: mbuni (sw)
• Swedish: struts (sv)
• Tagalog: abestrus
• Tajik: шутурмурғ (šuturmurġ)
• Tatar: тәвә кошы (tt) (täwä qoşı)
• Thai: กระจอกเทศ (th) (grà-jɔ̀ɔk-têet)
• Tswana: ntšhe
• Turkish: deve kuşu (tr)
• Turkmen: düýeguş
• Ukrainian: стра́ус m (stráus)
• Urdu: شترمرغ m (śuturmurġ)
• Uyghur: تۆگىقۇش (tögiqush)
• Uzbek: tuyaqush (uz)
• Vietnamese: đà điểu (vi)
• Volapük: strut (vo)
• Welsh: estrys f or m, estrysiaid m pl or f pl
• West Frisian: strúsfûgel
• Wolof: bànjóoli bi, baa
• Yiddish: שטרויס m (shtroys)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• (deprecated template usage) Northern Sami: struhcca
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

See also

• cassowary
• emu
• kiwi
• nandu
• rhea
• tinamou

Further reading

• ostrich on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Christo-, chorist, rhotics

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Middle English

Alternative forms

• ostriche, ostryche, ostrige

Etymology

Borrowed from Anglo-Norman ostrige and Old French ostruce, from Vulgar Latin *austrūthiō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɔstritʃ/, /ˈɔstridʒ/

Noun

ostrich (plural ostriches)

1. ostrich (Struthio camelus)
2. (rare) A goblet made of an ostrich egg.
3. (rare, heraldry) A heraldic image of an ostrich.

Descendants

• English: ostrich
• Scots: ostriche (obsolete)

References

• “ostrich(e (n.(1))”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-06-4.