Contextualizebeta

bird of paradise

noun

Etymology

The first Europeans to encounter their skins were the voyagers in Ferdinand Magellan's circumnavigation of the Earth. Antonio Pigafetta wrote that "The people told us that those birds came from the terrestrial paradise, and they call them bolon diuata, that is to say, 'birds of God"." "Bolon diuata" appears to be closer to Malay burung (“a bird”) and dewata (“a god”).

Definitions

  1. Any of various passerine birds of the family Paradisaeidae native to Oceania. In many of…

    Any of various passerine birds of the family Paradisaeidae native to Oceania. In many of the species the breeding plumage of the males is brightly coloured.

    • She had a jonquil silk pelisse, a bonnet of the same colour, with a bird of paradise plume, looking very much like an illuminated butterfly.

  2. A showy tropical flower of the genus Strelitzia, native to South Africa.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for bird of paradise. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA