In between birds, Marco and I have been talking words.
Anybody surprised?
Yesterday evening, as we watched the sun set on thousands of Greater Flamingos and assorted waterfowl, Marco asked why the big, colorful ducks with the red bills feeding in the shallows were called “Shelducks.” My answer: I dunno.
Our friends at the OED find the name “sheldrake” attested as early as the fourteenth century, an unsurprising date for so conspicuously colored and common a bird (and edible, too, though no doubt a bit fishy).
Not until the seventeenth century, though, does an explicit etymology appear. In 1678, John Ray in his Ornithology of Francis Willughby lists
The Sheldrake, or Borough-Duck… [so] called … from its being particoloured, Sheld signifying dappled or spotted with white.
Now I know.
Who can figure out the odd name “Borough-Duck”? Say it out loud if it isn’t immediately obvious….
