Etymology

bustard

bus·tard
B3U1S1T1A1R1D2

Today it means: Any of several large terrestrial birds of the family Otididae in the order Otidiformes that inhabit dry open country and steppes in the Old World. Full definition →

Middle English bustarde ← Old French bistarde ← Latin avis tarda
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Latin · derived fromavis tarda“slow bird”
  2. Old French · derived frombistarde
  3. Middle English · inherited frombustarde
  4. English todaybustard

From Middle English bustarde, from an Anglo-Norman blend of Old French bistarde and oustarde, both from Latin avis tarda (“slow bird”), which is a misnomer as bustards are fast runners.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.