ostrich
Pluralostriches
- 1A large flightless bird belonging to the order Struthioniformes.
The ostrich is the largest living bird, sometimes standing over nine feet tall.
Farmers raise ostriches for their meat, leather, and feathers.
Note
The name is a bird twice over. Middle English ostrige came through Anglo-Norman and Old French from Vulgar Latin *austruthio, which joins Latin avis, "bird," to strūthiō, the Greek-derived word for the ostrich itself. To a zoologist it is a ratite, with reduced wings, a flat unkeeled breastbone and powerful two-toed legs built for sustained running. The plural is ostriches.
- 2Struthio camelus, the species of the genus with the widest range, generally called the common ostrich.
The common ostrich ranges across much of sub-Saharan Africa.
Wild ostriches in Africa can outrun nearly every land predator they face.
Note
The species name puzzled early writers. Thomas Browne explained Struthio-Camelus as "borrowed from a bird and a beast," because the bird is camel-like in its long neck and its foot. As a commodity the word goes before another noun, as in ostrich feathers or an ostrich plume. It also stands alone and uncounted for the meat, sold alongside wild boar and crocodile. Davenant's "Estridge" of 1634 is an older spelling.
- 3A person who hides from problems instead of facing them, as though burying their head in the sand.
Investors who behaved like ostriches ignored every warning sign before the crash.
Calling her brother an ostrich, she begged him to face the looming deadline.
- 4In golf, the completion of a single hole in five strokes under par, equivalent to a quintuple birdie or double condor and considered only hypothetical.
An ostrich would require holing out in one stroke on a par-six hole, a feat never recorded in competition.
No golfer has ever made an ostrich, and the score survives only as a clubhouse joke.
Note
Golf names its scores below par after birds: birdie, eagle, albatross, condor. The flightless giant comes one step past all of them. An ostrich would mean holing out in one on a par six, which is why the word belongs to clubhouse joking rather than scorecards. Its arithmetic equivalents show how the ladder is counted: quintuple birdie, quadruple eagle, triple albatross, double condor.
Less common meaning
- 5The rhea, a large flightless bird native to the grasslands of South America.
On the pampas, the explorers chased an ostrich too swift for their horses to catch.
The Lengua Indians of the Gran Chaco love to hunt the ostrich
1911, James George Frazer, The Golden BoughNote
Before the two birds were recognized as separate groups, South America's rhea went by the African bird's name. James George Frazer's The Golden Bough still has the Lengua Indians of the Gran Chaco hunting "the ostrich." When an older account of South America mentions ostriches, read the word as rhea. In current writing, call the bird a rhea.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English ostrich, borrowed via Anglo-Norman ostrige and Old French ostruce from Vulgar Latin *austruthio, formed from Latin avis ("bird") plus strūthiō ("ostrich"), which came from Ancient Greek strouthíōn. It may instead be shortened from Latin strūthiocamēlus, from Greek strouthiokámēlos, made of strouthós ("sparrow") and kámēlos ("camel").