byrdling

Old English

Alternative forms

  • byrdlingc

Etymology

Apparently from a Proto-Germanic *burdilingaz (equivalent to bord +‎ -ling), though there are no cognates. Perhaps the literal meaning was originally "little shield," though in the surviving texts bord only means "shield" in poetry. Every modern Germanic language except English has the word "shield" in the word for "turtle": West Frisian skyldpod, Dutch schildpad, German Schildkröte, and Swedish sköldpadda all mean “shield toad,” Icelandic skjaldbaka and Faroese skjaldbøka both mean “shield back.” Also a few non-Germanic languages, cf. Estonian kilpkonn (literally “shield frog”) and Finnish kilpikonna (literally “shield toad”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈbyrd.linɡ/, [ˈbyrˠd.liŋɡ]

Noun

byrdling m

  1. turtle, tortoise

Declension

Strong a-stem:

singular plural
nominative byrdling byrdlingas
accusative byrdling byrdlingas
genitive byrdlinges byrdlinga
dative byrdlinge byrdlingum

Descendants

  • Middle English: birdling
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.