auk
nounUK /ɔːk/ · US /ɔk/
Etymology From Icelandic álka, from Old Norse alka (“auk”), from Proto-Germanic *alkǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁el- (“a kind of bird”). Cognate with Swedish alka (“auk”), Norwegian and Danish alke (“auk”), Swedish dialectal alla (“long-tailed duck”) (Clangula hyemalis, syn. Fuligula glacialis), Latin olor (“swan”), Ancient Greek ἐλέα (eléa, “marsh-bird”), Welsh alarch (“swan”).
1
Any of several species of Arctic sea birds of the family Alcidae.
- Further afield, these auks are also in dire straits: Norway has seen vertiginous crashes, with hundreds of thousands of adult puffins in the once-teeming colony of Røst struggling to fledge any chicks in recent years.2018 June 20, Louise Tickle, The Guardian:
- Derived terms
- auklet, great auk, lesser auk, little auk, parakeet auk, paroquet auk, perroquet auk, razor-billed auk