Kingfisher
/ˈkɪŋˌfɪʃ.ər/noun
A small brightly colored bird that feeds by catching fish, especially by diving into water.
Did you know?The name was originally applied because people thought the bird was so brilliantly colored it deserved royal status, and in some older forms it was even treated as a compound of “king” + “fisher,” not a true fish-catching title.
Etymological Timeline
Old English
OE
cyninges fiscere
“literally, "king's fisher" or a folk-etymological form associated with the bird”
Late Middle English
English
kingfisher
“the bird name becomes fixed in English”
Modern English
English
kingfisher
“a bright, fish-eating bird of the family Alcedinidae”
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*ǵenh₁-
“to give birth, beget; the root behind words for kin and lineage”