Erne
/ɜːrn/noun
A large sea eagle, especially the white-tailed eagle of Europe and northern Asia.
Did you know?Erne is a surviving Old English bird-name, while its distant Greek relative appears in ornithology—the scientific study of birds.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*h₃érn̥
“Eagle or large bird of prey; a reconstructed ancestral bird-name.”
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*arnuz
“Eagle.”
Old English
Old English
earn
“An eagle, especially a sea eagle.”
Middle English
Middle English
erne
“An eagle; the spelling developed under influence from related northern forms.”
Modern English
English
erne
“A sea eagle, chiefly the white-tailed eagle.”
Explore more surprising origins