ortolan

[awr-tl-uh n]

noun

an Old World bunting, Emberiza hortulana, esteemed as a table delicacy.

the bobolink.

Origin of ortolan

1520–30; < French < Provençal: literally, gardener (i.e., frequenting gardens) < Latin hortulānus, equivalent to hortul(us) little garden (hort(us) garden + -ulus -ule) + -ānus -an

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for ortolan

The Ortolan is considered sufficiently fat when it is a handful, and is judged by feeling it, and not by appearance.
Eccentricities of the Animal Creation.|John Timbs
Some persons like slices of bacon tied between them, but the taste of it spoils the flavour of the ortolan.
The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary; Including a System of Modern Cookery, in all Its Various Branches,|Mary Eaton
Like the Nightingale, to which it has other points of resemblance, the Ortolan sings after, as well as before sunset.
Eccentricities of the Animal Creation.|John Timbs
I will complain no more, my son,” said Lamme, rising up: “the herring is ortolan; malvoisie is small beer to free hearts.
The Legend of Ulenspiegel, Vol. II (of 2)|Charles de Coster

The cage of the young bird was near that of an ortolan, a European bird noted as a singer, and a common cage-bird.
The Children's Book of Birds|Olive Thorne Miller

British Dictionary definitions for ortolan

ortolan

noun

Also called: ortolan bunting a brownish Old World bunting, Emberiza hortulana, regarded as a delicacy

any of various other small birds eaten as delicacies, esp the bobolink

Word Origin for ortolan

C17: via French from Latin hortulānus, from hortulus, diminutive of hortus garden

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

ortolan

noun

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Origin of ortolan

Examples from the Web for ortolan

ortolan

noun

Word Origin for ortolan