Essentially, it was just easier to both say and understand pelegrinus than peregrinus. In this case, the first ‘r’ probably changed to an ‘l’ so as to be more distinct from the second ‘r’. Because of this, it’s quite normal for them to be interchanged as language evolves. The two sounds, ’r’ and ‘l’, are very similar: they are liquids which are consonants that can be extended, like vowels, but are made without any friction. By Late Latin, the original peregrinus became pelegrinus by a process called dissimilation. Pilgrim has had a more complicated journey. The birds were also taken by the falconer during their migration rather than directly from the nest. This neatly explains the bird’s given name: it has one of the longest migrations of any North American bird and can cover a total of 25,000km in a year, which is why it’s known as the ‘wanderer’. But peregrine has another meaning which is now archaic: Looking at peregrine first, it’s a term we associate nowadays with the peregrine falcon, whose Latin name is falco peregrinus. After that, the word split off in two separate directions, altering the spelling or meaning here or there, until we ended up with the two words we have now. In this case, the root word is the Latin peregrinus, meaning ‘foreigner’, which breaks down further into per, meaning ‘through’, and agr-, meaning ‘land’. Pilgrim and peregrine are two such examples and the reason why they are so alike is because they are essentially the same word, or rather, they come from the same root word. Send us feedback.Every so often, two words in English will crop up which look fairly similar, sound fairly similar and behave fairly similarly but are still two distinct words. These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'peregrine falcon.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. 2022 A few hours before he was struck by a car, Grinnell was seen defending the nest against an aggressive juvenile peregrine falcon.Īndres Picon, San Francisco Chronicle, 1 Apr. 2022 Annie is a female peregrine falcon who, since 2016, has been sheltering and laying eggs atop the university’s 307-foot-tall Sather Tower with her mate, Grinnell. Hartford Courant, 10 June 2022 As UC Berkeley’s peregrine falcon Annie makes headlines for quickly finding a new mate, a couple of raptors farther north are showing the world what can happen with just a little bit of romantic stability.Īndres Picon, San Francisco Chronicle, 7 Apr. Davis, San Antonio Express-News, 20 June 2022 This program will include a trio of screech owls, a barn owl and a peregrine falcon. Recent Examples on the Web Plymouth County: three sandhill cranes and a sora at Burrage Pond Wildlife Area in Hanson, and a peregrine falcon at Duxbury Beach.ī, 30 July 2022 This meant that the peregrine falcon is more closely related to colorful macaws and tiny sparrows than to any hawk or eagle.īen Crair, The New Yorker, 15 July 2022 Burrowing parrots are the prey of the peregrine falcon, the fastest bird on the planet.Īshley Strickland, CNN, 8 July 2022 She was stunned to see a peregrine falcon, its talons gripping the black railing of their west-facing terrace, staring at her.
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