godwit
nounUS /ˈɡɑd.wɪt/ · UK /ˈɡɒd.wɪt/
Etymology Origin unknown. A surface analysis would suggest Old English *gōdwiht as the term's ultimate origin, corresponding to good + wight (“creature”), but the term is attested only since late Middle English. The Oxford English Dictionary considers the term to probably have originally been imitative of the bird's call.
1
Any of four species of long-billed migratory wading birds in the genus Limosa, of the family Scolopacidae.
- My foot-boy shall eat pheasants, calvered salmons, / Knots, godwits, lampreys: I myself will have / The beards of barbels, served instead of salads […]c. 1610, Ben Jonson, The Alchemist:
- Derived terms
- bar-tailed godwit, black-tailed godwit, blackwit, Hudsonian godwit, hudwit, marbled godwit