A large number of birds received their names through the imitation of their cries. The cuckoo is an obvious example of such an onomatopoeic naming, and so are the owl, the cockatiel, and many more. Some bird names, however, have a more intriguing linguistic history.
許多禽鳥的英文名都是通過模擬叫聲得來，布谷鳥就是一個(gè)很明顯的例子，貓頭鷹、澳洲鸚鵡等等也是如此。但是，有一些禽鳥的名字背后則有著十分有趣的故事。

Magpie喜鵲

The magpie was earlier known as the?maggoty-pie?or?maggot-the-pie, of which?magpie?is probably a shortening. Here,?maggot, or later?mag, is an obsolete pet-form of the female forenames?Margery?and?Margaret. The second element,?pie, derives from Latin?pica, itself meaning ‘magpie’. It is also related to?picus, which is the Latin name for the green woodpecker.
喜鵲早前被叫做maggoty-pie和maggot-the-pie，因此magpie很有可能只是它們的縮寫。這里的maggot和后來的mag都是舊時(shí)的動(dòng)物名，相當(dāng)于女性名字Margery以及Margaret。第二部分pie來自于拉丁詞語pica，這個(gè)詞本意就是“喜鵲”。Pie還與picus有關(guān)，這個(gè)詞是綠啄木鳥的拉丁名。

It is possible that?picus?also gave us the other?pie, as in the baked pastry dish, perhaps alluding to the magpie’s habit of collecting random objects in comparison to a pie’s various ingredients.
很有可能picus這個(gè)詞衍生出了另一個(gè)pie的含義，即我們所說的烘烤類面點(diǎn)“派”。也許這是暗指喜鵲有收集東西的習(xí)慣，就像派上有各類的食材。

Albatross信天翁

The albatross received its name from the?alcatras, a frigate bird of similar appearance with which the oceanic bird was confused.
信天翁得名于alcatras，這是一種軍艦鳥，有著與信天翁這種海鳥相似的外形，因此常常被弄混。

According to the?Oxford English Dictionary?(OED), the alteration of the first syllable?alca occurred by folk-etymological association with classical Latin?albus?‘white’ in reference to the predominant colour of the plumage of many species of albatross.
根據(jù)牛津詞典，第一個(gè)音節(jié)alca的改變與詞源有關(guān)，拉丁語中albus表示白色，而多種信天翁體表大部分的羽毛都是白色。

Penguin企鵝

The origin of the word?penguin?is still a matter of debate among etymologists. It is probably derived from a Welsh phrase?pen gwyn, meaning ‘white head’.
詞源學(xué)學(xué)者對(duì)peguin一詞的來源仍爭(zhēng)論不休。有一種說法是它來源于威爾士語pen gwyn，意思是白色的頭部。

Apparently, the name was first given to a different bird, the now extinct Great Auk, which closely resembled the penguin in its appearance. It is assumed that the British sailors who first discovered the penguins mistook them for Great Auks and applied their name to the unfamiliar birds.
顯然，這個(gè)名字最早屬于別的鳥類——我們現(xiàn)在所說的大海雀，它和企鵝的外形十分相似。據(jù)說，最早發(fā)現(xiàn)企鵝的英國(guó)船員將其誤認(rèn)為大海雀并把這種他們并不認(rèn)識(shí)的鳥類稱作大海雀。

Turkey火雞

Keeping with the theme of people confusing one bird for another, the American turkey doesn’t actually originate from Turkey, but from Mexico. It was, however, first confused with?the Guinea-fowl, a bird native to Africa, which was imported to England through Turkey in the 16th?century.
人們總是會(huì)把一種禽鳥認(rèn)作另一種禽鳥。美國(guó)火雞其實(shí)并非來自于土耳其，而來自墨西哥。但是，它最早被誤認(rèn)為珍珠雞，這種禽類來自于非洲，與16世紀(jì)通過土耳其傳入英國(guó)。

Gull鷗

Gulls are admittedly not everyone’s favourite type of bird, and they have certainly?caused their fair share of controversy?in the past. But how did those seabirds get their name?
不得不承認(rèn)，鷗是每個(gè)人最不喜歡的鳥類，在過去它也引起了很多爭(zhēng)議。但是這種海鳥到底是如何得名的？

Gull?appears to be a word of Celtic origin, related to Welsh?g?ylan, Breton?gouelan, and also Irish?faoileán, all meaning ‘gull’.
Gull這個(gè)詞來自凱爾特與，與威爾士語中的g?ylan、布里多尼語中的gouelan以及愛爾蘭語中的faoileán有關(guān)，這些詞都有g(shù)ull的含義。

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