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Latin of "owl"? I know that there is a couple of words for owl in Latin language (Noctua, strix, and bubo). However, as far as I know, these are used to refer to a specific type or types of owls. My question is, is there a word to refer to all of the species of owls collectively? (Cicuma?) If there is, I am looking for a word that was used among the people in all times that is different than the scientific name of the owls today. Thanks for helping!
Oct 17, 2013 9:57 PM
Answers · 6
I think you can generically say *corvus,i* .. Or *corax,cis*
October 21, 2013
If you're looking for standard Latin vocabulary -- rather than modern scientific uses -- Whitaker's Words is an pretty good English-to-Latin online tool. Here's the entry for "owl:" http://archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wordz.pl?english=owl Just keep in mind that this is not an honest-to-goodness lexicon with reliable definitions and citations. For that, the standard 19th century Latin dictionary, Lewis and Short, is online. I'm copying and pasting all of the entries for owl below (noctus, ulula, corvus, strix, cicuma, and bubo (some of the others you included really do not mean owl). None of the words for owl listed above are high frequency enough to be ranked in the corpus, but purely subjectively, I'd say that _strix _is the most common. If it means anything to you, the outstanding Latinist, Peter Needham uses strix to translate "owl/" in his Latin translation of Harry Potter.   Hope that helps!  Brian LEWIS AND SHORT ENTRIES Noctua: a night-owl, an owl, a bird sacred to Minerva: https://logeion.uchicago.edu/noctua Strix: a screech-owl, which, according to the belief of the ancients, sucked the blood of young children,  https://logeion.uchicago.edu/strix Cicuma: an owl https://logeion.uchicago.edu/cicuma ulula, a screech-owl https://logeion.uchicago.edu/ulula bubo, an owl, horned owl https://logeion.uchicago.edu/bubo
June 9, 2021
Bubo
November 26, 2013
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