More importantly, every other etymology I’ve seen for dodo (for example, Merriam-Webster’s) derives it from Portuguese doudo ‘silly, stupid.’ My default assumption here is that the author listened to somebody who didn’t know what he was talking about (presumably one of the Dutch scientists he traveled around with) and that the magazine, as sadly often these days, fell down on fact-checking, but if anyone knows differently, please speak up.Ī Dutch birding site ( ) says (of the Little Grebe]: “De naam Dodaars heeft te maken met de gelijkenis van het stuitje met een uitgebloeide Lisdodde – de rietsigaren langs de waterkant.” Which means: the name dodaars has to do with the similarity of the tailfeathers with the Lisdodde when it has finished blooming - the ‘reed cigars’ along the water’s edge.” Lisdodde/reed cigars are cattails in English (typha latifolia and other species of typha). In the first place, dood does not mean ‘fat’ in Dutch, it means ‘dead’ or ‘death’ (‘fat’ is dik or vet). In English, “dodo” was in use by the sixteen-twenties, perhaps through a simple process of linguistic evolution but Hume likes the idea that the coinage was inspired, or at least reinforced, by the bird’s call. On later visits, the Dutch came to refer to the birds as dodaersen-fat-asses. It’s fairly interesting (though presumably more so if you care more than I do about dodos), but the linguistically significant bit was this, from p. 22 New Yorker, and I just finished “Digging for Dodos,” by Ian Parker (not online). I’m still working my way through the Jan.
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