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. Here we take a look at a few examples.
許多鳥類的名字是通過它們的叫聲模擬得來的。杜鵑鳥（又名布谷鳥-cuckoo）的名字是一個明顯的擬聲詞,同樣還有貓頭鷹（owl）,澳洲鸚鵡（cockatiel）等等。然而，另一些鳥類名字的來源則有一個更有趣的語言的歷史。在這里,我們看看幾個例子。

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. 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.
信天翁的名字源于詞匯alcatras,alcatras表示一種熱帶大海鳥，與其他海鳥的外觀相似。根據《牛津英語詞典》(OED), 由于信天翁大部分物種的翅膀都以白色為主，其第一個音節(jié)alca與古典拉丁語albus（表示白色）有民間聯(lián)系，由alcatras到albatross的第一個音節(jié)變更就與此有關。

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。
喜鵲,喜鵲最初被稱為maggoty-pie或maggot-the-pie，magpie是一個縮寫詞。在這里，maggot（后來簡寫作mag）是一個老式的女性名字Margery（瑪杰里）和Margaret（瑪格麗特）的昵稱形式。第二個部分pie源自拉丁詞匯pica。

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’. 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.
企鵝這個詞的起源仍然是詞源學家們存在爭議的問題之一。它可能是來自威爾士短語pen gwyn,意思是“白頭”。顯然,這個名字第一次用于為另外一種鳥命名，即現在已經滅絕的大海雀,在外觀上大海雀與企鵝相似。猜測是由于英國水手第一次發(fā)現了企鵝，并把企鵝誤認為是大海雀，便將大海雀的名字用到了企鵝身上。?
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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.
這也屬于人們將一種鳥類誤認為另一種的情況，美國的火雞并不是源于Turkey（土耳其）一詞，它來源于墨西哥。然而,最開始人們混淆了火雞和珍珠雞,珍珠雞是一種非洲本土的鳥類，在16世紀它經過土耳其被運送到英國。

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