curlew

From Middle English curlew, from Old French courlieu (see French courlis), claimed to be imitative of the bird's cry but apparently assimilated with dialectal *corliu (“runner, messenger”), a variant of coureur (the bird is adept at running).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɜːlju/, /ˈkɜːlu/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɝlu/

curlew (plural curlews)

1. Any of several migratory wading birds in the genus Numenius of the family Scolopacidae, remarkable for their long, slender, downcurved bills.
2. (Australia) A stone curlew.
   • 1902, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Bush Studies (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 16:

     That quivering wail from the billabong lying murkily mystic towards the East was only the cry of the fearing curlew.

• curlew sandpiper
• stone curlew

• curlewe, curlue, curlu, curlowe, curleeu, corlew, corlewe, corlue, kurlu, kurlew

From Old French courlieu.

• IPA^(key): /kurˈliu̯/, /ˈkurliu̯/

curlew (plural curlewes)

1. curlew
2. quail

• English: curlew

• “curleu, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-03-09.