Storch

Meaning

stork (bird)

Concepts

stork

storks

heron

Synonyms

Klapperstorch

Adebar

Weißstorch

Ciconiidae

Ciconia ciconia

Weißer Storch

Meister Adebar

Weissstorch

Translations

cigogne

cicogna

cigüeña

cegonha

ooievaar

leylek

πελαργός

ciconia

cigonya

لقلق

cigonha

Ciconia

λελέκι

eiber

Dialects

Basel-Landschaft

haini

Basel-Landschaft

stoorg

Basel-Landschaft

stoorgehaini

Data provided by: Deutsch-Schweizerdeutsches Wörterbuch

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ʃtɔrç/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle High German: storch

Inherited from Old High German: storah

Cognate with Dutch: stork

Cognate with English: stork

Cognate with Swedish: stork

In summary

From Middle High German storch, storc, from Old High German storah, *storc(h), from Proto-West Germanic *stork, from Proto-Germanic *sturkaz.
Cognate to dialectal Dutch stork, English stork, Swedish stork. The expected German form is also Stork, which was indeed in wide use, but has not become standardized. The shifted variant Storch is probably due to the use of epenthetic vowels in Old High German, by which the uninflected stem storah alternated with inflected storc-. Such variation was generally levelled in favour of the inflected stem, but this was an apparent exception. Compare for the regular development Old High German starah alongside starc(h), whence Middle High German starc and modern stark. Alternatively, Storch could be an Upper German relict form (with [rx] from [rkx]), but the regional distribution does not seem to confirm this.