Etymology

stork

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Today it means: A large wading bird with long legs and a long beak of the order Ciconiiformes and its family Ciconiidae. Full definition →

Middle English stork ← Old English storc ← Proto-West Germanic *stork
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stork · noun1

  1. Proto-Indo-European · inherited from*sr̥ǵos“stork”
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*sturkaz
  3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*stork
  4. Old English · inherited fromstorc
  5. Middle English · inherited fromstork
  6. English todaystork

Inherited from Middle English stork, from Old English storc, from Proto-West Germanic *stork, from Proto-Germanic *sturkaz, from Proto-Indo-European *sr̥ǵos (“stork”). Near cognates include Dutch stork, German Storch, Swedish stork, and Icelandic storkur. Compare also Latvian stārķis (“stork”), borrowed from Germanic.

Stork · proper noun2

  1. German · borrowed fromStork
  2. English todayStork

Two main origins: * English surname from stork, a nickname for a thin man with long legs. * Borrowed from German Stork, probably a nickname or a habitational surname from a place in Hesse.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.