nightingale

• IPA^(key): /ˈnaɪtɪŋɡeɪl/

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Inherited from Middle English nyghtyngale, nightingale, niȝtingale, alteration (with intrusive n) of nyghtgale, nightegale, from Old English nihtegala, nihtegale (“nightingale; night-raven”, literally “night-singer”), from Proto-West Germanic *nahtigalā (“nightingale”), equivalent to a compound of night +‎ gale. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Noachtegoal (“nightingale”), Dutch nachtegaal (“nightingale”), German Low German Nachtigall (“nightingale”), German Nachtigall (“nightingale”), Danish nattergal (“thrush nightingale”), Swedish näktergal (“nightingale”), Icelandic næturgali (“nightingale”).

nightingale (plural nightingales)

2. A Eurasian and African songbird, Luscinia megarhynchos, family Muscicapidae, famed for its beautiful singing at night; a common nightingale.
   • c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene v], page 68, column 2:

     Wilt thou be gone? It is not yet neere day: / It was the Nightingale, and not the Larke, / That pier'ſt the fearefull hollow of thine eare

   • 1769, Firishta, translated by Alexander Dow, Tales translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi, volume I, Dublin: P. and W. Wilson et al., page v:

     Some admired the external beauties of the objects they beheld, like the nightingale in love with the roſe.

   • 1826, [Mary Shelley], chapter V, in The Last Man. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC:

     The oaks around were the home of a tribe of nightingales.

   • 1859, Edward Fitzgerald, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: The Astronomer-Poet of Persia, page 2:

     And David's Lips are lock't; but in divine
     High piping Péhlevi, with "Wine! Wine! Wine!
     Red Wine!" — the Nightingale cries to the Rose
     That yellow Cheek of her's to'incarnadine.

   • 1936, F.J. Thwaites, chapter XXII, in The Redemption, Sydney: H. John Edwards, published 1940, page 222:

     The air, too, was heavy with perfume, and a nightingale, high in the heavens, gave out a cheery song of welcome.

• philomel

Named after Florence Nightingale.

nightingale (plural nightingales)

1. A kind of flannel scarf with sleeves, formerly worn by invalids when sitting up in bed.

• alightening

nightingale

1. alternative form of nyghtyngale