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都是舊時的動物名，相當于女性名字Margery以及Margaret。第二部分pie來自于拉丁詞語pica，這個詞本意就是“喜鵲”。Pie還與picus有關，這個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這個詞衍生出了另一個pie的含義，即我們所說的烘烤類面點“派”。也許這是暗指喜鵲有收集東西的習慣，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.

 

　　根據牛津詞典，第一個音節alca的改變與詞源有關，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’.

 

　　詞源學學者對peguin一詞的來源仍爭論不休。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，這個名字最早屬于別的鳥類——我們現在所說的大海雀，它和企鵝的外形十分相似。據說，最早發現企鵝的英國船員將其誤認為大海雀并把這種他們并不認識的鳥類稱作大海雀。

 

　　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.

 

　　人們總是會把一種禽鳥認作另一種禽鳥。美國火雞其實并非來自于土耳其，而來自墨西哥。但是，它最早被誤認為珍珠雞，這種禽類來自于非洲，與16世紀通過土耳其傳入英國。

 

　　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，鷗是每個人最不喜歡的鳥類，在過去它也引起了很多爭議。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，這些詞都有gull的含義。