Turkic etymological background of the English bird name terek ‘Tringa cinereus’
Journal: Acta Orientalia
Year: 2017

This paper deals with the Turkic background of the English ornithonym terek ‘ Tringa cinereus ’. Despite a large number of works devoted to different aspects of bird names, the origin of the English ornithonym terek or terek sandpiper ‘ Tringa cinereus ’ has not been studied sufficiently. The English name of the bird terek originates from the name of the Terek river in the Caucasus, which, in turn, is a Turkic word meaning ‘tree’ and ‘poplar’. The etymology of the word terek is expounded along t