nightingale

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The tropical moon threw a gauzy veil over objects that softened their outlines; and the notes of the nightingale were the only sounds that broke the stillness of what seemed a sleeping elysium Once a vanilla plantation, here and there the aromatic bean grew wild, its ground usurped by the pita-plant, the acacia, and the thorny cactus.

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Definitions (14)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun A European songbird (Luscinia megarhynchos) with reddish-brown plumage, noted for the melodious song of the male at night during the breeding season.
  2. noun Any of various other nocturnal songbirds of the genus Luscinia.

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Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples

  • The tropical moon threw a gauzy veil over objects that softened their outlines; and the notes of the nightingale were the only sounds that broke the stillness of what seemed a sleeping elysium Once a vanilla plantation, here and there the aromatic bean grew wild, its ground usurped by the pita-plant, the acacia, and the thorny cactus. —  The Rifle Rangers
  • 1. Thy spirits sister, the lorn nightingale, Mourns not her mate_, &c.; The reason for calling the nightingale the sister of the spirit of Keats (Adonais) does not perhaps go beyond this--that, as the nightingale is a supreme songster among birds, so was Keats a supreme songster among men. —  Adonais
  • The song of the nightingale is the deadliest known to ornithology. —  Following the Equator
  • The tropical moon threw a gauzy veil over objects that softened their outlines; and the notes of the nightingale were the only sounds that broke the stillness of what seemed a sleeping elysium. —  The Rifle Rangers
  • They wanted peace and quietness; and one old greenfinch, who could not sing a bit, and had no ear for music, used to say that the nightingale was as great a nuisance as old —  Featherland How the Birds lived at Greenlawn
 

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Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old English nihtegale : niht, night; see night + galan, to sing; see ghel-1 in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English nightingale, niʒtingale (with unorig. medial n), nightegale, nyghtgale, from Anglo-Saxon nihtegale, nihtegala, nehtegale (in old glosses also naectegale, nectægalae, nictigalae, a nightingale, also rarely a night-raven) (= Old Saxon nahtigala = Middle Dutch nachtegale, Dutch nachtegaal = Old High German nahtagala, nahtigala, Middle High German nahtegale, nahtegal, G. nachtigall; cf. modern Icelandic nætfrgali = Swedish näktergal = Danish nattergal, after G.), a nightingale, from niht, genitive nihte, night, + gale, singer, from galan, sing: see gale.
  2. So called after Florence Nightingale, conspicuous as a hospital nurse in the Crimean war and later. The surname Nightingale is derived from the name of the bird: see nightingale.
 

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/ˈnaɪtɪngeɪl/
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