starling

See also: Starling

English

A common starling (Sturnus vulgaris)

Pronunciation

• enPR: stär′lĭng
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈstɑɹ.lɪŋ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈstɑː.lɪŋ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)lɪŋ

Etymology 1

From Middle English starling, sterling, sterlinge, from Old English stærling, from stær (“starling”) + -ling (diminutive suffix). Cognate with Middle Dutch sterlinck (“starling”).

Noun

starling (plural starlings)

1. A family, Sturnidae, of passerine birds.
   2. The common starling, Sturnus vulgaris, which has dark, iridescent plumage.

      Synonyms: European starling, (archaic, dialectal) stare

      • 1997, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 52, in Mason & Dixon, 1st US edition, New York: Henry Holt and Company, →ISBN, part Two: America, page 501:

        Vast flights of starlings, fleeing the racket, beat across the sky at high speed, like Squall-clouds,— Evening at Noon-tide.

2. A fish, rock trout (Hexagrammos spp.), of the North Pacific, especially, Hexagrammos decagrammus, found in US waters.

   Synonyms: boregat, bodieron

Derived terms

• amethyst starling
• common starling, European starling (Sturnus vulgaris)
• New Zealand starling
• pied starling
• plum-colored starling
• plumcoloured starling
• plum-coloured starling
• rose-colored starling, rose-coloured starling
• rosy starling (Pastor roseus)
• spotless starling (Sturnus unicolor)
• violet-backed starling

Translations

bird

• Afrikaans: spreeu
• Albanian: shturë (sq) f, gargull (sq) m
• Arabic: زُرْزُور (zurzūr)

  Egyptian Arabic: زرزور m (zarzūr)

• Armenian: սարյակ (hy) (saryak)
• Asturian: estornín (ast)
• Bashkir: сыйырсыҡ (sıyırsıq)
• Basque: arabazozo
• Belarusian: шпак m (špak)
• Bengali: শালিক (bn) (śalik)
• Breton: tred (br) f
• Bulgarian: скоре́ц (bg) m (skoréc)
• Catalan: estornell (ca) m
• Chechen: алкханч (alqanč)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 椋鳥 / 椋鸟 (zh) (liángniǎo)

• Cornish: troos m
• Crimean Tatar: sıyırcıq
• Czech: špaček (cs) m
• Danish: stær (da) c
• Dutch: spreeuw (nl) m or f
• Esperanto: sturno
• Estonian: kuldnokk (et), künnirästas
• Faroese: stari m
• Finnish: kottarainen (fi)
• French: étourneau (fr) m
• Friulian: sturnel ?
• Galician: estorniño m
• Georgian: შოშია (šošia)
• German: Star (de) m
• Greek: ψαρόνι (el) n (psaróni)

  Ancient: ψάρ m (psár)

• Hebrew: זַרְזִיר (he) m (zarzír)
• Hungarian: seregély (hu)
• Icelandic: stari (is) m
• Inari Sami: kottarâš
• Indonesian: jalak (id)
• Irish: druid f
• Italian: storno (it) m
• Japanese: 椋鳥 (ja) (mukudori)
• Javanese: jalak (jv)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: alik (ku), reşêlek (ku), zerzûr (ku)

• Ladin: storno ?
• Latin: sturnus m
• Latvian: mājas strazds m
• Lithuanian: varnėnas (lt) m
• Low German: Spree m or f
• Lule Sami: sterra
• Luxembourgish: Spréif f
• Macedonian: сколовра́нец m (skolovránec)
• Maltese: sturnell m
• Maori: tāringi
• Norman: étourné m (Guernsey), êtourné m (Jersey)
• Northern Sami: stárra
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: stær m

  Nynorsk: stare m, star (nn) m

• Occitan: estornèl (oc) m
• Old English: stær m
• Ossetian: сауцъиу (sawc’iw)
• Ottoman Turkish: صیغیرجق (sığırcık), سار (sar), زرزور (zurzur), چكركه قوشی (çekirge kuşu)
• Persian: سار (fa) (sâr), ساری (fa) (sâri)
• Polish: szpak (pl) m anim
• Portuguese: estorninho (pt) m
• Romanian: graur (ro) m
• Romansch: sturnel ?
• Russian: скворе́ц (ru) m (skvoréc)
• Sardinian: istùrulu campinu ?, sturru grandinau ?
• Scottish Gaelic: druid f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: чво́рак m

  Roman: čvórak (sh) m

• Slovak: škorec (sk) m
• Slovene: škorec (sl) m
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: škórc m

  Upper Sorbian: škórc m

• Spanish: estornino (es) m
• Swedish: stare (sv) c
• Tagalog: martines
• Talysh: шор
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: sığırcık (tr)
• Turkmen: sar
• Ukrainian: шпак m (špak)
• Venetan: strioło m
• Volapük: sturnod (vo)
• Welsh: drudwen f
• West Frisian: protter (fy) c

pilings

• Finnish: suojapaalutus
• French: bec (fr) m
• German: Eisbrecher (de) m
• Italian: palificazione (it) f, palafitta (it) ?
• Polish: izbica (pl) f, lodołam m
• Russian: водоре́з (ru) m (vodoréz), волноре́з (ru) m (volnoréz), ледоре́з (ru) m (ledoréz)
• Swedish: isbrytare (sv) c

Etymology 2

Apparently a variant of staddling (although difficult to account for), or perhaps an alteration by association with another (unidentified) word.

Alternative forms

• sterling

Noun

starling (plural starlings)

1. (hydraulic engineering) An enclosure like a coffer-dam, formed of piles driven closely together, before any work or structure as a protection against the wash of the waves, commonly used to protects the piers of a bridge.
2. One of the piles used in forming such a breakwater.

References

• “starling”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “starling”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC, page 5908, column 1.
• William Dwight Whitney and Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1914), “starling”, in The Century Dictionary: An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language, revised edition, volume V, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC, page 5908, column 1.
• “starling”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• Starling (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• starling on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Sturnidae on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Hexagrammos on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Category:Sturnidae on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
• Category:Hexagrammos on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

Anagrams

• ratlings