starling

See also: Starling

English

Pronunciation

• (non-rhotic)
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈstɑːlɪŋ/, [ˈstɑːlɪŋ]

    • Audio (Southern England):

      (file)

• (rhotic)
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈstɑɹlɪŋ/, [ˈstɑɹlɪŋ]
• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)lɪŋ
• Hyphenation: star‧ling

Etymology 1

A common starling (Sturnus vulgaris).

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *ster-

Proto-Indo-European *ster-os

Proto-Germanic *staraz

Proto-West Germanic *star

Old English stær

Proto-Indo-European *-lósder.

Proto-Germanic *-ilaz

Proto-Indo-European *-n̥kʷo-der.?

Proto-Indo-European *-nós

Proto-Indo-European *-iHnos

Proto-Germanic *-īnaz

Proto-Indo-European *-kos

Proto-Germanic *-gaz

?

Proto-Germanic *-ingaz

Proto-Germanic *-ilingaz

Proto-West Germanic *-ling

Old English -ling

Old English stærling

Middle English starling

English starling

From Middle English starling, sterling, sterlinge, from Old English stærling, from stær (“starling”) + -ling (diminutive suffix). Cognate with Middle Dutch sterlinck (“starling”).

Noun

starling (plural starlings)

1. A family, Sturnidae, of passerine birds.
   2. The common starling, Sturnus vulgaris, which has dark, iridescent plumage.

      Synonyms: European starling, (archaic, dialectal) stare

      • 1997, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 52, in Mason & Dixon, 1st US edition, New York: Henry Holt and Company, →ISBN, part Two: America, page 501:

        Vast flights of starlings, fleeing the racket, beat across the sky at high speed, like Squall-clouds,— Evening at Noon-tide.

2. A fish, rock trout (Hexagrammos spp.), of the North Pacific, especially, Hexagrammos decagrammus, found in US waters.

   Synonyms: boregat, bodieron

Alternative forms

• sterling (obsolete (Middle English – 18th c.))

Hyponyms

• amethyst starling
• chestnut-tailed starling
• common starling, European starling (Sturnus vulgaris)
• New Zealand starling
• pied starling
• plumcoloured starling, plum-colored starling, plum-coloured starling
• rose-colored starling, rose-coloured starling
• rosy starling (Pastor roseus)
• spotless starling (Sturnus unicolor)
• violet-backed starling

Derived terms

• starlinglike

Translations

bird

• Afrikaans: spreeu
• Albanian: shturë (sq) f, gargull (sq) m
• Arabic: زُرْزُور (zurzūr)

  Egyptian Arabic: زرزور m (zarzūr)

• Armenian: սարյակ (hy) (saryak)
• Asturian: estornín (ast)
• Bashkir: сыйырсыҡ (sıyırsıq)
• Basque: arabazozo
• Belarusian: шпак m (špak)
• Bengali: শালিক (bn) (śalik)
• Breton: tred (br) f
• Bulgarian: скоре́ц (bg) m (skoréc)
• Catalan: estornell (ca) m
• Chechen: алкханч (alqanč)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 椋鳥 / 椋鸟 (zh) (liángniǎo)

• Cornish: troos m
• Crimean Tatar: sıyırcıq
• Czech: špaček (cs) m
• Danish: stær (da) c
• Dutch: spreeuw (nl) m or f
• Esperanto: sturno
• Estonian: kuldnokk (et), künnirästas
• Faroese: stari m
• Finnish: kottarainen (fi)
• French: étourneau (fr) m
• Frisian:

  West Frisian: protter (fy) c

• Friulian: sturnel ?
• Galician: estorniño m
• Georgian: შოშია (šošia)
• German: Star (de) m
• Greek: ψαρόνι (el) n (psaróni)

  Ancient Greek: ψάρ m (psár)

• Hebrew: זַרְזִיר (he) m (zarzír)
• Hungarian: seregély (hu)
• Icelandic: stari (is) m
• Indonesian: jalak (id)
• Irish: druid f
• Italian: storno (it) m
• Japanese: 椋鳥 (ja) (mukudori)
• Javanese: jalak (jv)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: alik (ku), reşêlek (ku), zerzûr (ku)

• Ladin: storno ?
• Latin: sturnus m
• Latvian: mājas strazds m
• Lithuanian: varnėnas (lt) m
• Low German: Spree m or f
• Luxembourgish: Spréif f
• Macedonian: сколовра́нец m (skolovránec)
• Maltese: sturnell m
• Māori: tāringi
• Norman: étourné m (Guernsey), êtourné m (Jersey)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: stær m

  Nynorsk: stare m, star (nn) m

• Occitan: estornèl (oc) m
• Old English: stær m
• Ossetian: сауцъиу (sawc’iw)
• Persian: سار (fa) (sâr), ساری (fa) (sâri)
• Polish: szpak (pl) m anim
• Portuguese: estorninho (pt) m
• Romanian: graur (ro) m
• Romansh: sturnel ?
• Russian: скворе́ц (ru) m (skvoréc)
• Sami:

  Inari Sami: kottarâš

  Lule Sami: sterra

  Northern Sami: stárra

• Sardinian: istùrulu campinu ?, sturru grandinau ?
• Scottish Gaelic: druid f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: чво́рак m

  Latin: čvórak (sh) m

• Slovak: škorec (sk) m
• Slovene: škorec (sl) m
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: škórc m

  Upper Sorbian: škórc m

• Southern Altai: сыгырчык (sïgïrčïk)
• Spanish: estornino (es) m
• Swedish: stare (sv) c
• Tagalog: martines
• Talysh: шор
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: sığırcık (tr)

  Ottoman Turkish: صیغیرجق (sığırcık), سار (sar), زرزور (zurzur), چكركه قوشی (çekirge kuşu)

• Turkmen: sar
• Ukrainian: шпак m (špak)
• Venetan: strioło m
• Volapük: sturnod (vo)
• Welsh: drudwen f

Etymology 2

Apparently a variant of staddling (although difficult to account for), or perhaps an alteration by association with another (unidentified) word.

Noun

starling (plural starlings)

1. (construction) An enclosure like a coffer-dam, formed of piles driven closely together before any structure or work, as a protection against the wash of waves, commonly used to protect the piers of a bridge.
2. One of the piles used in forming such a breakwater.

Alternative forms

• sterling (obsolete (18th–20th c.))

Translations

pilings

• Finnish: suojapaalutus
• French: bec (fr) m
• German: Eisbrecher (de) m
• Italian: palificazione (it) f, palafitta (it) ?
• Polish: izbica (pl) f, lodołam m
• Russian: водоре́з (ru) m (vodoréz), волноре́з (ru) m (volnoréz), ледоре́з (ru) m (ledoréz)
• Swedish: isbrytare (sv) c

Further reading

• starling on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
  • Category:Sturnidae on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
  • Sturnidae on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Hexagrammos on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
  • Category:Hexagrammos on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
  • Hexagrammos on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• starling (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin Eli Smith, editors (1895–1910), “starling”, in The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to XII), New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC, page 5908, column 1.
• William Dwight Whitney and Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1914), “starling”, in The Century Dictionary: An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language, revised edition, volume V, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC, page 5908, column 1.
• “starling”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• ratlings