flamingo
pronunciation
How to pronounce flamingo in British English:
UK [fləˈmɪŋgəʊ]
How to pronounce flamingo in American English:
US [fləˈmɪŋgoʊ]
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- Noun:
- large pink to scarlet web-footed wading bird with down-bent bill; inhabits brackish lakes
Word Origin
- flamingo
- flamingo: [16] Flamingos get their name from their reddish-pink plumage, which earned them the epithet ‘fire-bird’. This was expressed in Provençal (the language of southern French coastal areas, where flamingos abound) as flamenc, a compound formed from flama ‘flame’ (a descendant of Latin flamma) and the Germanic suffix -ing ‘belonging to’. English acquired the word via Portuguese flamengo. (It has, incidentally, no etymological connection with flamenco ‘Spanish dance’ [19], which comes from the Spanish word for ‘Flemish’: the people of Flanders seem to have had a reputation in the Middle Ages for bright, flamboyant dress, and hence ‘Flemish’ in Spanish became synonymous with ‘gipsy-like’.)=> flame
- flamingo (n.)
- long-legged, long-necked brightly colored pink bird of the tropical Americas, 1560s, from Portuguese flamengo, Spanish flamengo, literally "flame-colored" (compare Greek phoinikopteros "flamingo," literally "red-feathered"), from Provençal flamenc, from flama "flame" (see flame (n.)) + Germanic suffix -enc "-ing, belonging to." Perhaps accommodated to words for Fleming (see flamenco).
Example
- 1. Around 600 flamingo chicks were ringed and measured this week before being released in the lagoon
- 2. Yeah , but will I see you at flamingo ?
- 3. That show at the flamingo gets better and better .
- 4. Flamingo chicks move around a pen at the fuente de piedra nature reserve , near malaga , in southern spain .
- 5. Now the island is one of only a handful of lesser flamingo breeding colonies in the world .