Old English · noun
byrdling
- Part of speech
- noun, masculine
- Declension
- strong a-stem
- IPA
- /ˈbyrd.linɡ/[ˈbyrˠd.liŋɡ]
- Syllables
- ˈbyrd · linɡ (2 syllables)
- Modern English
- birdlingtortoiseturtle
Meaning
-
turtle, tortoise
Declension
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | byrdling | byrdlingas |
| Accusative | byrdling | byrdlingas |
| Genitive | byrdlinges | byrdlinga |
| Dative | byrdlinge | byrdlingum |
All forms (6)
Etymology
Apparently from a Proto-West Germanic *burdiling (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 …
Descendants
birdling
Source: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · en.wiktionary.org/wiki/byrdling · CC BY-SA 4.0 licence · Attribution