godwit

English edit

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godwit

Godwit

Origin unknown. A surface analysis would suggest Old English *gōdwiht as the term's ultimate origin, corresponding to good +‎ wight (“creature”), but the term is attested only since late Middle English.^[1] The Oxford English Dictionary considers the term to probably have originally been imitative of the bird's call.^[1]

godwit (plural godwits)

Any of four species of long-billed migratory wading birds in the genus Limosa, of the family Scolopacidae.
- c. 1610, Ben Jonson, The Alchemist:
  My foot-boy shall eat pheasants, calvered salmons, / Knots, godwits, lampreys: I myself will have / The beards of barbels, served instead of salads […]

Derived terms

Long-billed wading bird

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 “godwit, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2022.