Back to all words

Flamingo

4 stages from Latin to English.

Today it means a tall pink wading bird with a bent bill

Where does the word "flamingo" come from? It comes from Latin flamma, passing through Occitan and Portuguese before entering English (1560s).

flamma→flamenc→flamengo→flamingo

Latin · classical

'flame'; Romans called the bird itself phoenicopterus ('crimson-wing', from Greek), and Pliny reports the gourmet Apicius praising its tongue

Occitan · medieval

"flame-coloured bird"

flama plus the Germanic suffix -enc; Provence's Camargue wetlands hold one of Europe's main flamingo breeding colonies

Portuguese · 1500s

the same form also meant 'Flemish', and the two words were long confused by association

English · 1560s

"pink wading bird"

taken from Portuguese or Spanish; Mark Catesby's Natural History of Carolina (1730s) later gave English readers an early painting of the American flamingo

Drag to pan · scroll to zoom

Read the full story

Flamingo’s story begins in Latin: flamma meant “flame.” 'flame'; Romans called the bird itself phoenicopterus ('crimson-wing', from Greek), and Pliny reports the gourmet Apicius praising its tongue. By medieval, the word had taken hold in Occitan as flamenc. Flama plus the Germanic suffix -enc; Provence's Camargue wetlands hold one of Europe's main flamingo breeding colonies. From there it passed into Portuguese as flamengo by 1500s. The same form also meant 'Flemish', and the two words were long confused by association. It reached English by 1560s as flamingo. Taken from Portuguese or Spanish; Mark Catesby's Natural History of Carolina (1730s) later gave English readers an early painting of the American flamingo. Today, flamingo means a tall pink wading bird with a bent bill.