[Ads-l] Bald eagle etymology

[Jonathan Lighter]

Oxford Book of Bird Names: "Used of the Marsh Harrier and the Osprey, but
properly a name for the Kite, as in Merrett 1667 'Peronos bald Buzzard, or
Kite'."


The chief connection between "bald eagle" and "bald buzzard" would thus
seem to be that the namers of the bald eagle may possibly

Since said eagle indisputably has a white head, I wonder what William of
Ockham would have thought of this. But even if English speakers
folk-etymologized "balbusard" (osprey) into "bald buzzard," the line holds
that "bald"still  means "bald" (or "sure looks bald").

JL

On Tue, Feb 20, 2018 at 5:28 PM, Peter Reitan <pjreitan at hotmail.com> wrote:

> It seems plausible to me that the French/Latin term, "balbusard" came
> first.
>
>
> The English easily heard as "bald buzzard," particularly in light of the
> fact that looked bald.
>
> The people who first saw a bald eagle saw the similarity, and recognized
> that it was an eagle, and named it "bald eagle," which seemed appropriate
> because they also looked bald.  So although the early naming of the osprey
> may have been based on the Latin word for stuttering, the word was later
> understood to refer to apparent baldness, without a conscious memory or
> understanding of the earlier term.
>
> Also, the call of an osprey, the so-called "bald buzzard," does sound like
> it is stuttering, so the "balbusard" origin seems believable.
>
> https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/OSPREY/sounds
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of
> ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2018 2:01 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Bald eagle etymology
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Bald eagle etymology
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>
> Fascinating investigation, Peter. What you have found certainly
> provides an intriguing alternative explanation for "bald" in "bald
> eagle".
> Garson
>
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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