nightingale
noun/ˈnaɪtɪŋɡeɪl/
Etymology Inherited from Middle English nyghtyngale, nightingale, niȝtingale, alteration (with intrusive n) of nyghtgale, nightegale, from Old English nihtegala, nihtegale (“nightingale; night-raven”, literally “night-singer”), from Proto-West Germanic *nahtigalā (“nightingale”), equivalent to a compound of night + gale. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Noachtegoal (“nightingale”), Dutch nachtegaal (“nightingale”), German Low German Nachtigall (“nightingale”), German Nachtigall (“nightingale”), Danish nattergal (“thrush nightingale”), Swedish näktergal (“nightingale”), Icelandic næturgali (“nightingale”).
A Eurasian and African songbird, Luscinia megarhynchos, family Muscicapidae, famed for its beautiful singing at night; a common nightingale.
- Wilt thou be gone? It is not yet neere day: / It was the Nightingale, and not the Larke, / That pier'ſt the fearefull hollow of thine earec. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene v], page 68, column 2:
- Some admired the external beauties of the objects they beheld, like the nightingale in love with the roſe.1769, Firishta, translated by Alexander Dow, Tales translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi, volume I, Dublin: P. and W. Wilson et al., page v:
3 more examples
- The oaks around were the home of a tribe of nightingales.1826, [Mary Shelley], chapter V, in The Last Man. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC:
- And David's Lips are lock't; but in divine High piping Péhlevi, with "Wine! Wine! Wine! Red Wine!" — the Nightingale cries to the Rose That yellow Cheek of her's to'incarnadine.1859, Edward Fitzgerald, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: The Astronomer-Poet of Persia, page 2:
- The air, too, was heavy with perfume, and a nightingale, high in the heavens, gave out a cheery song of welcome.1936, F.J. Thwaites, chapter XXII, in The Redemption, Sydney: H. John Edwards, published 1940, page 222:
- Synonyms
- philomel
- Derived terms
- Ceylon nightingale, Chinese nightingale, common nightingale, Dutch nightingale, fen nightingale, Indian nightingale, Irish nightingale, Japanese nightingale, mock nightingale, nightingale finch, nightingale floor, nightingale of the East, nightingale-thrush, nightingale-wren, Palestine nightingale, Persian nightingale, Scotch nightingale, thrush nightingale, Virginia nightingale