osprey

English

An osprey.

An osprey in flight.

Etymology

From Late Middle English ospray, from Anglo-Norman ospriet, from Medieval Latin avis prede (“bird of prey”), a generic term apparently confused with this specific bird in Old French on its similarity to ossifrage.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɑspɹi/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɒspɹeɪ/

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Noun

osprey (plural ospreys)

1. A bird of prey (Pandion haliaetus) that feeds on fish and has white underparts and long, narrow wings each ending in four finger-like extensions.
   • 1594, George Peele (attributed), The Battle of Alcazar

     I will provide thee of a princely osprey.

   • 1613–1614 (date written), John Fletcher, William Shak[e]speare, The Two Noble Kinsmen: […], London: […] Tho[mas] Cotes, for Iohn Waterson;  […], published 1634, →OCLC, (please specify the page), (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

     But (oh Jove!) your actions, / Soon as they move, as ospreys do the fish, / Subdue before they touch.

   • 2023 August 24, Mairead Sheehy, “'Like finding long-lost treasure': Ospreys breed in Ireland for first time in 200 years”, in Irish Examiner‎^[1]:

     A pair of ospreys bred at a confidential nesting site in Co. Fermanagh in what has been described as like finding long-lost treasure.

2. Aigrette (ornamental feather).

Synonyms

• fish eagle (a misnomer as the osprey is not an eagle, but compare some of the translations below)
• fish hawk (a misnomer as the osprey is not a hawk)
• orfray (obsolete)
• ossifrage (from Latin "bone-breaker")
• osspringer (obsolete)

Derived terms

• western osprey

 

Translations

bird of prey

• Afrikaans: visarend, visvalk
• Albanian: shqipe e zezë f, shqiponjë peshkngrënëse f, petrit peshkngrënës m
• Arabic: عُقَاب نَسْرِيّ m (ʕuqāb nasriyy)
• Bashkir: кәлмәргән (kəlmərgən)
• Basque: arrano arrantzale
• Breton: erer-spluj m
• Bulgarian: орел рибар (orel ribar)
• Catalan: àguila pescadora f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 魚鷹／鱼鹰 (zh) (yúyīng), 鶚／鹗 (zh) (è)

• Cree: ᐊᐱᐢᑿᕀ (apiskway)
• Czech: orlovec m
• Danish: fiskeørn (da) c
• Dutch: visarend (nl) m
• Esperanto: fiŝaglo
• Estonian: kalakotkas (et)
• Faroese: fiskiørn f
• Finnish: sääksi (fi), kalasääski (fi)
• French: balbuzard (fr) m, balbuzard pêcheur (fr) m, orfraie (fr) f
• Georgian: შაკი (šaḳi)
• German: Fischadler (de) m
• Greek: αλιάετος (el) m (aliáetos)

  Ancient: ἁλιάετος m (haliáetos)

• Hebrew: שָׁלָךְ (he) m (shalách)
• Hungarian: halászsas (hu)
• Icelandic: gjóður (is) m
• Indonesian: elang tiram
• Irish: coirneach m, iascaire coirneach m
• Italian: falco pescatore m, aquilastro m
• Japanese: 鶚 (ja) (misago)
• Klamath-Modoc: dokdokw'as
• Komi-Zyrian: чери варыш (ćeri varyš), скӧпун (sköpun)
• Korean: 물수리 (ko) (mulsuri)
• Latgalian: kirluons m
• Latin: ossifragus m, haliaeetus m
• Latvian: zivjērglis
• Lithuanian: žuvininkas (lt) m
• Low German: Fischaadler m, Fischarend m
• Lutshootseed: c̓ixʷc̓ixʷ
• Manx: shawk eeastee m
• Mari:

  Eastern Mari: сака (saka)

  Western Mari: сексӹ (seksÿ)

• Navajo: táłkááʼ naalzheehí
• Negidal: оломо̄н (olomōn)
• Norman: orfinne f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: fiskeørn m or f

  Nynorsk: fiskeørn f or m

• Old English: herefong m
• Polish: rybołów (pl) m, rybołów zwyczajny (pl) m
• Portuguese: águia-pesqueira f
• Romanian: vultur-pescar (ro) m
• Russian: скопа́ (ru) f (skopá)
• Scots: fish hawk
• Scottish Gaelic: iolair-uisge f, iolair-iasgaich f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: орао рибар m

  Roman: orao ribar (sh) m

• Slovak: kršiak rybár m, kršiak rybožravý m, orliak riečny m
• Slovene: ribji orel
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: rybjecy hodlaŕ m

• Spanish: águila pescadora f, gavilán pescador m, guincho (es) m
• Swahili: kipungu
• Swedish: fiskgjuse (sv)
• Telugu: కురరము (te) (kuraramu)
• Tocharian B: kurār-lūwo
• Turkish: balık kartalı (tr)
• Udmurt: чорыгасьдушес (ćorygaśdušes)
• Volapük: melakvil
• Welsh: gwalch y pysgod

Anagrams

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