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.

Simplified etymology

Stork is an Old English word and is probably related to stark in its original sense “stiff,” an association prompted by the bird's stiff posture.

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.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary