Forms: 1 storc, (3 steorc), 3–7 storke, 4– stork. [OE. storc masc. = OS., (M)LG., (M)Du. stork, NFris. stork, stourk, störk, OHG. storah, stork (MHG. storch, storc, mod.G. storch, dial. stork), ON. stork-r (Sw., Da. stork):—OTeut. *sturko-z.
Usually referred to the Teut. root *sterk. (see STARK a.), the name being supposed to refer to the apparent stiffness or rigidity in the bird’s manner of standing. Some regard the word as cogn. w. Gr. τόργος vulture. The names of the stork in various eastern European langs. are commonly believed to be from Teut.: OSl. strŭkŭ, Russ. стерхъ, Lith. starkus, Lett. starks, Magyar eszterag, Albanian sterkjok.]
1. A large wading bird of the genus Ciconia, allied to the ibis and heron; characterized by having long legs and a long stout bill.
Usually, the name denotes the White Stork (Ciconia alba), which stands over three feet high, and has brilliant white plumage with black wing-coverts and quills, and red legs. In summer it is an inhabitant of most parts of the Continent of Europe. A less common European species is the Black Stork (C. nigra). The American Stork (C. maguari) belongs to South America.
a. 800. Erfurt Gloss., 259, in O. E. Texts, 52. Ciconia: storc.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., I. 404. Storc and swalewe heoldon ðone timan heora to-cymes.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 132. Þe steorc [v.rr. strucion, ostrice] uor his muchele flesche makeð a semblaunt uorte vleon,… auh þet fette drauhð euer to þer eorðe.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (Rolls), 14574. He liuede in kerres, as doþ þe stork.
c. 1381. Chaucer, Parl. Foules, 361. The stork the wrekere of a-vouterye.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XII. ix. (1495), 419. A storke is messager of spryngynge tyme.
c. 1425. Eng. Conq. Irel., 28. Storkes & swalewes & oþer somer foules we haue aftyre I-loked.
a. 1529. Skelton, P. Sparowe, 469. The storke also, That maketh his nest In chymneyes to rest.
1584. Greene, Mirr. Modesty, Wks. (Grosart), III. 39. The Storke neuer medleth but with his mate.
1648. Bp. Hall, Sel. Th., li. 149. The Stork is said to have taught man the use of the glyster.
1667. Milton, P. L., VII. 423. There the Eagle and the Stork On Cliffs and Cedar tops their Eyries build.
1678. Ray, Willughby’s Ornith., III. ii. 287. The American Stork, called by the Brasilians Maguari of Marggrave.
1738. Albin, Nat. Hist. Birds, III. 77. The Black Stork.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1824), II. V. iii. 350. The Dutch are very solicitous for the preservation of the stork in every part of the republic.
1838. Murray’s Handbk. N. Germ., 30. A number of tame storks may be seen stalking about in the fish-market of the Hague.
b. Applied to birds of allied genera: (see quots.).
1869–73. T. R. Jones, Cassell’s Bk. Birds, IV. 59. The Whale-headed Stork, or Shoe-beak (Balæniceps rex) … is extremely numerous on the marshy grounds and rain-beds near the White Nile. Ibid., 71. The Giant Storks (Mycteria). Ibid., 75. The Clapper-billed Storks, or Shell-eaters (Anastomas), inhabit Africa and Southern Asia. Ibid., 91. The Field Storks (Arvicolæ) … are natives of South America.
1872. J. H. Gurney, Andersson’s Birds Damara Land, 231. Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis, Bon. Saddle-billed Stork. Ibid., 282. Leptoptilus crumeniferus, Cuv. African Marabou Stork.
c. fig. and allusive.
With reference to supposed habits of the stork (see quots. 1580, 1642; cf. quots. c. 1381 and 1584 in 1); to the fable of the frogs who chose a stork for their king; to the German and Dutch nursery fiction that babies are brought by the stork; etc.
1555. Instit. Gentl., G iiij b. And well worthye are all such to loose ye name of gentry, because like Storcks deuourers of their owne kinde, in running out of their profession, they distroy themselues.
1580. Lyly, Euphues & his England (Arb.), 363. Ladyes vse their Louers as the Storke doth hir young ones, who pecketh them till they bleed with hir bill, and then healeth them with hir tongue. Ibid., 416. Constancy is like vnto the Storke, who wheresoeuer she flye commeth into no neast but hir owne.
1597. J. Payne, Royal Exch., 48. You … maliciousely accuse vs…, reiectinge you and your vilde opinions sythens the fyrst hatchinge therof by your grandsire Storck.
1597. Donne, Poems, Calm, 4. The fable is inverted, and farre more A blocke afflicts, now, then a storke before.
1631. Massinger, Emperor East, II. i. Like Æsops folish Frogges … if hee proue a Storke, they croke and rayle Against him as a tyranne.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., I. vi. 15. He is a stork to his parent, and feeds him in his old age.
1784. Cowper, Task, V. 282. Thus kings … became … Storks among frogs, that have but croak’d and died.
1823. Scott, Quentin D., xxi. I wish we have not got King Stork, instead of King Log.
2. The bird or its flesh as an article of food.
c. 1460. J. Russell, Bk. Nurture, 433, in Babees Bk. (1868), 144. Pecok, Stork, Bustarde & Shovellewre, ye must vnlace þem in þe plite of þe crane.
c. 1475[?]. Sqr. lowe Degre, 323. Both storkes and snytes ther were also, And venyson freshe.
1513. Bk. Keruynge, in Babees Bk. (1868), 271. For standarde, venyson roste,… bustarde, storke, crane.
1620. Venner, Via Recta, iii. 64. The Storke is of hard substance, of a wilde sauour, and of very naughty iuyce.
† 3. Some kind of fish. ? A shark. Obs. rare–1.
1600. Dallam, in Early Voy. Levant (Hakl. Soc.), 95. A great fishe called a storke, of a marvalus length, did follow our ship,… waytinge for a praye.
4. A variety of the domestic pigeon. More fully stork pigeon.
1855. Poultry Chron., III. 140/1. Storks. Ibid., 320. The Stork Pigeon. The Stork…. They derive their name from their plumage bearing considerable resemblance to that of a stork.
1881. Lyell, Pigeons, 88. When well marked, the stork is considered one of the finest feather varieties in Germany. Ibid. The … stork or wing pigeon of Germany.
5. (See quot.)
1750. T. Wright, Orig. Theory Universe, 25. Her [sc. the moon’s] whole Globe appeared to us very conspicuously within a manifest circle. You … told me that that kind of phænomenon the country people called a Stork, or the old moon in the new one’s arms.
6. attrib., as stork-assembly, -flight, -kind, -migration, -tribe; parasynthetic and similative, as stork-billed adj., stork-fashion adv., stork-like adj. and adv.
1730–46. Thomson, Autumn, 853. The *stork-assembly meets,… Consulting … ere they take Their arduous voyage through the liquid sky.
c. 1875. Cassell’s Nat. Hist., III. 349. The *Stork-billed Kingfishers (Pelargopsis).
1888. Myra’s Jrnl., 1 April, 210/2. The skater must poise on one leg only, *stork-fashion.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., I. VII. v. In this manner … they, a wild unwinged *stork-flight,… wend their way.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1824), II. V. iii. 360. A bird of the *stork kind.
1652. Bp. Hall, Balm of Gilead, 213. Sometimes indeed … some *Storke-like disposition repaies the loving offices done by the Parents.
1872. Coues, N. Amer. Birds, 262. The pterylosis is more or less completely stork-like.
1913. J. R. Harris, Boanerges, xxxii. 312. It seems to be more likely that the swan migration is independent of the *stork migration.
1895. Lydekker, Roy. Nat. Hist., IV. 306. The *Stork tribe.
