What's in a name?
The word osprey is thought to have come into Middle English from Old French (ospreit), which is thought to have come from Latin (avis praedae, bird of prey). Etymlogical links are also drawn with French "ossifrage" --bone breaker-- although this name is generally applied to the lammergeier or bearded vulture, which drops bones of carrion from the air in order to break them and get the marrow, something the osprey never does. I suspect this is an old confusion or convergence of two similar words for different birds of prey, rather than a root source for the word osprey.
The osprey's scientific name, Pandion haliaetus, is Greek made into scientific Latin. Haliaetus comes from two Greek words and means 'sea-eagle'. Pandion was a king of Athens but it's not clear whether he had anything to do with Ospreys!The French name "Balbuzard" is thought to come from British who settled in Burgundy in the 18th century. When they saw Ospreys, they called them "Bald Buzzards" which the French then adapted into Balbuzards. Before then, they were often confused with the White tailed Sea Eagle, and like the latter called Orfrai or Orfray.
In other languages there are names which are connected with fish - for example:
German: Fischadler |
Russian: Skopa |
Danish: Fiskeorn |
Estonian: Kalakotkas |
Swedish: Fiskgjuse (see below) |
Spanish: Aguila pescadora |
Gaelic: Iasgair |
Italian: falco pescatore |
Dutch: Visarend (fish eagle) |
Portuguese: Gavião pescador |
Welsh: Gwalch y Pysgod (fish hawk) |
Japanese: Misago (see below) |
Korean: mulqswuli (water-eagle) |
Can anyone supply the name and meaning in other
languages?
It seems likely that there may be names in West African
languages such as Fula or Diola, since ospreys spend the
winter there.
Karl Basilier writes from Sweden:
In Japanese the standard name of the osprey is "misago". This word is somewhat enigmatic in origin, just like the English one. A venerable authority on Japanese, (Samuel Martin, "the Japanese Language through time") says the proper segmentation is "mi-sago". This agrees with my own best guess, namely that the "mi-" represents an old Japanese word for water, as in Minamata, Mishima and other names. Another name in Japan is "uo-taka", which gives the familiar meaning "fish-hawk".
I'd like to add a few words on the standard term in my native tongue, Swedish "fisk-gjuse": The word "gjuse" signifies this species only. As for the shape of the word, a "j" in Swedish tends to be a good indicator of old vocabulary. There are at least two opinions of what this word once meant. The leading authority on Swedish etymology (called Hellquist) says "gjuse" is an imitation of the bird's cry. A widely read authority on Indo-European etymology, on the other hand (Pokorny), compares "gjuse" to Greek "ichthys", implying a meaning like "fisher". (The main philologic equation involved is Germanic "g" to Greek "chth"). This suggests tautology in modern usage, the "fisk-" being added as the meaning of the old word was forgotten.
What should we call the young?Bruce Brown sent an email asking:
As far as we know there is no special name for a young Osprey apart from the generic terms "chicK", used while it is in the nest and "juvenile" used once it has fledged. However, one visitor on a guided walk suggested that we use the term "ospring" - very nice! |
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The Osprey in Literature
Probably the first appearance of the osprey in literature occurs in the comedy The Birds by the Athenian playwright Aristophanes, which dates to 410 BC. The osprey is mentioned only in passing, although the variety of birds present in the play suggest that Aristophanes may be the earliest documented bird watcher. The main character is a hoopoe.
Sixty years later, Aristotle wrote in his Natural History, "There is another species, called the sea-eagle or osprey. This bird has a large, thick neck, curved wings, and broad tail feathers; it lives near the sea, grasps its prey with its talons, and often, from inability to carry it, tumbles down into the water." Perhaps the ospreys around Greece 2,350 years ago were rather hapless, as this type of accident, while widely remarked upon, is certainly very rare.
Skipping ahead about 2,000 years to 1608, Shakespeare used the osprey in a simile in his play The Tragedy of Coriolanus (Act 4, Scene 7); the lines are spoken by Aufidius to his lieutenant about Coriolanus' prospects of taking Rome by force.
"I think he'll be to Rome
As is the osprey to the fish, who takes it
By sovereignty of nature."
The osprey is mentioned in the Old-Testament lists of unclean foods provided in both Leviticus (11:13) and Deuteronomy (14.12). However, according to an article about birds in the Bible written by Aharon Shulov and published in the reference A Dictionary of Birds (Campbell & Lack, eds.), the Hebrew word translated as osprey ("ospray") in the King James version of the Bible actually refers to the black vulture, Aegypius monachus.
In the early 19th century, the American naturalist, artist, and author Alexander Wilson, a contemporary and some say competitor of Audubon, wrote a poem about the osprey, which is reprinted at the end of this section.
In 1854, Henry David Thoreau wrote about an osprey fishing over Walden Pond in his classic Walden. The passage reads "...a fish hawk dimples the glassy surface of the pond and brings up a fish..."
THE FISH HAWK, OR OSPREY
by Alexander Wilson (1766-1813)
"The regular arrival of this noted bird at the vernal equinox, when the busy season of fishing commences, adds peculiar interest to its first appearance, and procures it many a benediction from the fishermen. With the following lines, illustrative of these circumstances, I shall conclude its history:
Soon as the sun, great ruler of the year,
The Fisherman's Hymn.
Bends to our northern clime his bright career,
And from the caves of ocean calls from sleep
The finny shoals and myriads of the deep;
When freezing tempests back to Greenland ride,
And day and night the equal hours divide,
True to the season, o'er our sea-beat shore,
The sailing osprey high is seen to soar,
With broad unmoving wing, and circling slow,
Marks each loose straggler in the deep below;
Sweeps down like lightning! plunges with a roar!
And bears his struggling victim to the shore.
The long housed fisherman beholds with joy,
The well known signals of his rough employ;
And as he bears his nets and oars along,
Thus hails the welcome season with a song:The osprey sails above the sound,
The geese are gone, the gulls are flying;
The herring shoals swarm thick around,
The nets are launched, the boats are plying.
Yo ho, my hearts! let's seek the deep,
Raise high the song and cheerly wish her,
Still as the bending net we sweep,
'God bless the fish-hawk and the fisher!'
She brings us fish -she brings us Spring,
Good times, fair weather, warmth, and plenty;
Fine store of shad, trout, herring, ling,
Sheep-head and drum, and old wives' dainty.
Yo ho, my hearts! let's seek the deep,
Ply every oar, and cheerly wish her,
Still as the bending net we sweep,
'God bless the fish-hawk and the fisher!'
She rears her young on yonder tree,
She leaves her faithful mate to mind 'em;
Like us, for fish she sails the sea,
And, plunging, shows us where to find 'em.
Yo ho, my hearts! let's seek the deep,
Ply every oar, and cheerly wish her,
While slow the bending net we sweep,
'God bless the fish-hawk and the fisher!'