ortolan
Americannoun
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an Old World bunting, Emberiza hortulana, esteemed as a table delicacy.
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the bobolink.
noun
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Also called: ortolan bunting. a brownish Old World bunting, Emberiza hortulana, regarded as a delicacy
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any of various other small birds eaten as delicacies, esp the bobolink
Etymology
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
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
For the film, we had to make an ortolan out of another bird.
From Salon • Feb. 9, 2024
I want to talk about the ortolan scene.
From Salon • Feb. 9, 2024
Each diner was presented with a sizzling roasted ortolan, a sparrow-like bird the size of a lemon.
From The Guardian • Sep. 12, 2016
The ortolan, a seed-eating songbird that is little bigger than a child's hand, has been banned from restaurant menus in much of Europe since 1999.
From Reuters • Sep. 16, 2014
Instead of these, the contents proved to be a bird—and only one—a chick recently hatched, about the size of a squab-pigeon, and fat as a fed ortolan.
From The Castaways by Pearse, Lolbran
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
