هوبره

Persian

Alternative forms

• آهوبره (âhubare, âhubarre)

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic حُبَارَى (ḥubārā), the original Arabic name for Chlamydotis macqueenii, also applied for the temperate climate Otis tarda and other fowls of the family when the Arabs faced North. Reinterpreted in Persian as آهو (âhu, “gazelle”) + بره (barre, “lamb”) because it runs as fast as the former and is as plump and palatable as a lamb, with similar pairs found in Turkic.

Noun

هوبره • (hubare, hubarre)

1. bustard

Further reading

• Aʿlam, Hūšang, Scott, Derek A. (1990-12-15) “bustard”, in Encyclopædia Iranica, online edition, New York
• Hauenschild, Ingeborg (2003) Die Tierbezeichnungen bei Mahmud al-Kaschgari: eine Untersuchung aus sprach- und kulturhistorischer Sicht (Turcologica; 53) (in German), Otto Harrassowitz: Wiesbaden, →ISBN, pages 224–225