bittern

English

great bittern
(Botaurus stellaris)

little bittern
(Ixobrychus minutus)

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbɪtən/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

  • Homophones: bitten, Bitterne
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈbɪtəɹn/
• Rhymes: -ɪtə(ɹ)n

Etymology 1

From Middle English bitour, botor, from Old French butor, from Gallo-Roman *butitaurus, a blend of Latin būtiō (“bittern”) and taurus (“bull, ox”).

Noun

bittern (plural bitterns)

1. Several bird species in the Botaurinae subfamily of the heron family Ardeidae.
   • 1819, Washington Irving, The Sketch Book, Rip Van Winkle:

     It is a great rock or cliff on the loneliest part of the mountains, and […] is known by the name of the Garden Rock. Near the foot of it is a small lake, the haunt of the solitary bittern, with water-snakes basking in the sun on the leaves of the pond-lilies which lie on the surface.

Derived terms

terms derived from bittern (bird)

• forest bittern (Zonerodius heliosylus)
• Eurasian bittern (Botaurus stellaris)
• Australasian bittern (Botaurus poiciloptilus)
• American bittern (Botaurus lentiginosus)
• pinnated bittern (Botaurus pinnatus)
• stripe-backed bittern (Ixobrychus involucris)
• least bittern (Ixobrychus exilis)
• little bittern (Ixobrychus minutus)
• New Zealand bittern (Ixobrychus novaezelandiae)
• yellow bittern (Ixobrychus sinensis)
• Von Schrenck's bittern (Ixobrychus eurhythmus)
• cinnamon bittern (Ixobrychus cinnamomeus)
• dwarf bittern (Ixobrychus sturmii)
• black bittern (Dupetor flavicollis)
• common bittern (Botaurus stellaris)
• sunbittern, sun bittern, sun-bittern (Eurypyga helias)

Translations

bird of the subfamily Botaurinae

• Armenian: ջրցուլ (hy) (ǰrcʻul)
• Belarusian: буга́й (buháj)
• Breton: bongorz (br) m
• Bulgarian: голям воден бик (goljam voden bik)
• Cornish: bonngors m
• Czech: bukač (cs) m
• Danish: rørdrum (da)
• Dhivehi: ރާބޮނދި (rāboⁿdi)
• Dutch: roerdomp (nl) m
• Egyptian: (kꜣpw)
• Esperanto: botaŭro
• Finnish: kaulushaikara (fi) (Botaurus), pikkuhaikara (fi) (Ixobrychus), nokihaikara (fi) (Zebrilus)
• French: butor (fr) m
• Galician: abetouro (gl) m
• German: Dommel f, Rohrdommel (de)
• Greenlandic: qarluutitoornaq
• Hungarian: bölömbika (hu)
• Ido: butoro (io)
• Irish: bonnán (ga) m
• Italian: tarabuso (it)
• Japanese: さんかのごい (sankanogoi), にがり (ja) (kogari)
• Korean: 알락해오라기 (allakhae'oragi)
• Latin: butio m
• Latvian: dumpis m
• Lithuanian: baublys (lt) m
• Low German: Rohrdump f, Rohrdumm f
• Maori: kautuku, matuku
• Old English: rāredumle f
• Persian: بوتیمار (fa)
• Polish: bąk (pl) m
• Portuguese: abetouro
• Romanian: bâtlan-de-stuf m, buhai-de-baltă (ro) m, bou-de-baltă (ro) m
• Russian: выпь (ru) f (vypʹ)
• Scottish Gaelic: corra-ghrian f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: букач m

  Roman: bukač (sh) m

• Spanish: avetoro (es) m (Botaurus), avetorillo m (Ixobrychus)
• Swedish: rördrom (sv)
• Ukrainian: бугай (uk) m (buhaj)
• Volapük: botur (vo)
• Welsh: adar y bwn m pl, bwm y gors m

See also

• Appendix: Animals
• Appendix:English collective nouns
• bumble

References

• bittern on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Botaurinae on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Category:Botaurinae on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

Etymology 2

From bitter with an unclear suffix, perhaps a dialect form of -ing.

Noun

bittern (countable and uncountable, plural bitterns)

1. The liquor remaining after halite (common salt) has been harvested from saline water (brine).
2. The saline substance added to soy milk to coagulate it as a primary step in the production of tofu.
   • 2019, “The Secrets of Tofu across Japan”, in Seasoning the Seasons‎^[1], NHK World-Japan:

     Now we add the bittern.

3. (archaic) A very bitter compound of quassia, cocculus indicus, etc., used by fraudulent brewers in adulterating beer.

Translations

salt substance used in tofu

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 鹽滷 / 盐卤 (zh) (yánlǔ)

• Japanese: 苦汁 (ja) (にがり, nigari), 滷汁 (ja) (にがり, nigari)
• Korean: 간수 (ko) (gansu)

Anagrams

• Bittner, Britten