Etymology

turtle dove

Today it means: Any of several (species of) birds, called by this traditional name, mainly in the genus Streptopelia, of the family Columbidae (doves and pigeons, which also included the extinct passenger pigeon, dodo, and solitaire). Full definition →

Middle English turtildove ← Latin turtur
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromturtur“turtledove”
  2. Middle English · inherited fromturtildove
  3. English todayturtle dove

From Middle English turtildove, turteldoufe (cognate with Old High German turtultūba, turtulatūba, turtiltūba, Middle High German turteltūbe, türteltūbe, German Turteltaube; German Low German Turtelduuv, Dutch tortelduif, Faroese turtildúgva, Icelandic turtildúfa), Danish turteldue, Norwegian Bokmål turteldue, Norwegian Nynorsk turteldue, Swedish turturduva. The first element is from Latin turtur (“turtledove”) (compare the archaic synonym turtle (“turtle dove (bird)”); the word is not related to turtle (“reptile with a shell”).

Words from the same roots

Latinturtur all →

turtle

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.