stork

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a large long-legged wading bird with a long straight bill, belonging to the family Ciconiidae

   A white stork stood motionless in the shallow water.

2. 2
   noun

   in folklore, the bird said to deliver newborn babies

   The nursery mural showed a stork carrying a baby in a cloth bundle.

From Middle English stork and Old English storc, from a Proto-Germanic bird name also reflected in Dutch stork, German Storch, Swedish stork, and Icelandic storkur. Its deeper Indo-European origin is uncertain, though a reconstructed form *sr̥gos has been proposed.

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