geitenmelker

Betekenis (Engels)

synonym of nachtzwaluw (“Eurasian nightjar (Caprimulgus europaeus)”)

Sinonieme

nachtzwaluw

Vertalings

nightjar

Ziegenmelker

noitibó

Nachtschwalbe

engoulevent

succiacapre

caprimulgo

Caprimulgus

chotacabras

guardacaminos

çobanaldatan

goatsucker

nighthawk

crapaud volant

Uitgespreek as (IPA)

/ˈɣɛi̯.tə(n)ˌmɛl.kər/

Etimologie (Engels)

Compound of geit (“goat”) + -en- + melken (“to milk”) + -er, a calque of Latin caprimulgus meaning the same, which in turn represents a partial calque of Ancient Greek αἰγοθήλας (aigothḗlas). So named due to the ancient belief that nightjars stole milk from goats, a claim made in Historia animalium by Aristotle in the fourth century BC, repeated in Naturalis Historia by Pliny the Elder in the first century AD and subsequently followed by some medieval authors. In the Low Countries, the claim was notably repeated by Jacob van Maerlant, who in his thirteenth-century Der naturen bloeme refers to Pliny as a source for this claim (and naming the bird agotile, presumably after the Greek).