ostrich

A funny-looking animal with a funny origin story is the ostrich. When you look at an ostrich, with its small head, big, long legs, and large, fluffy body, the first thing you think of is a tiny, adorable sparrow, right? Wait, what?

As it happens, that’s what the ancient Greeks thought, apparently. The word ostrich ultimately comes from the Greek word strouthion, which comes from the Greek expression for “big sparrow.” That’s right, it seems the Greeks thought the ostrich was just a really big, weird sparrow.

Funnily enough, the ancient Greeks also called the ostrich strouthokamelos, which means “camel-sparrow,” because the bird has a long neck like a camel.

The roots of these other words may get a rise—of laughter or surprise—out of you. Run on over to our roundup of them at “Weird Word Origins That Will Make Your Family Laugh.”

• The ostrich may look silly but you don’t want to make this huge bird mad. It is the world’s largest bird. It can run up to 43 mph/hr (70 km/hr), and its legs can be used to deliver devastating kicks.
• A common myth surrounding the ostrich is that it buries its head in the sand when it is scared, a behavior that is the source of the idiom to hide/bury one’s head in the sand. In reality, ostriches can’t fly, so they lay their eggs in a hole in the ground, and occasionally they peek their head in to rotate them to ensure they are properly heated.
• While the adjective ostrichlike describes something that resembles an ostrich, you can also use the word struthious, which comes from the ostrich’s original Greek name.