heron

Meaning

Any long-legged, long-necked wading bird of the family Ardeidae.

Synonyms

egret

crane

stork

hern

flamingo

🦩

curlew

loon

pied

sooty tern

greater frigatebird

ardea

Nycticorax nycticorax

white crane

grey

grey heron

hawk

herons

jabiru

Translations

héron

garza

Reiher

reiger

airone

garça

agró

ardea

ερωδιός

balıkçıl

τσικνιάς

Ardea spp.

bernat

airão

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈhɛɹən/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: heron

Cognate with Swedish: häger

Cognate with Old English: hrāgra

Cognate with Dutch: reiger

Cognate with German: Reiher

Cognate with Welsh: crëyr

Cognate with Ancient Greek: κρίζω

In summary

From Middle English heron, heroun, heiron, from Anglo-Norman heiron, from Medieval Latin hairō, from Frankish and Proto-West Germanic *hraigrō, from Proto-Germanic *haigrô (compare Swedish häger and Danish hejre), dissimilation of *hraigrô (compare Old English hrāgra, Dutch reiger, German Reiher), from imitative Proto-Indo-European *(s)kreik-, *(s)kreig- (“to screech, creak”) (compare Welsh crëyr (“heron”), Ancient Greek κρίζω (krízō, “to creak, screech”). Compare also egret from the same Germanic etymon.