首页英语词典ossifrageossifrage的意思

ossifrage

英 ['ɒsɪfrɪdʒ] 美['ɑsɪfrɪdʒ]
  • n. 鱼鹰
最后更新时间:2025-07-14

英文词源


ossifrage (n.)
"sea-eagle, osprey," c. 1600, from Latin ossifraga "vulture," fem. of ossifragus, literally "bone-breaker," from ossifragus (adj.) "bone-breaking," from os (genitive ossis) "bone" (see osseous) + stem of frangere "to break" (see fraction). By this name Pliny meant the lammergeier (from German, literally "lamb-vulture"), a very large Old World vulture that swallows and digests bones and was believed also to drop them from aloft to break them and get at the marrow. But in England and France, the word was transferred to the osprey, perhaps on similarity of sound between the two words.