Beak

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /biːk/

Definitions

1. A hard, pointed projection that forms the mouth of a bird and is used for feeding and grasping
2. A pointed, hardened structure on a bird's head that assists in feeding and manipulating various items
3. A narrow and pointed anatomical structure found on birds that serves multiple purposes, including feeding and defense

Etymology: The English word for a bird's horny mouth arrived in Middle English as "bec," borrowed from Anglo-Norman and Old French, and its ultimate source is the Latin "beccus." That Latin term is itself thought to come from Gaulish, the Celtic language of pre-Roman Gaul, where a form meaning "beak" or "snout" existed. Its distant ancestry may trace back to a root meaning "pointed stick" or "peg," an image that suits a sharp, projecting mouth well. The Breton "beg" and the Dutch "bek" still carry the same idea, showing how widely this Celtic-rooted word spread across the region. Curiously, English also has a separate and much later slang sense that is unrelated to the bird. In the seventeenth century, a cant word "beak" referred to a constable or magistrate, and its origin is unknown, though it is probably connected to an obsolete cant term "beck" meaning constable. Two entirely different words have thus converged on one spelling in English.

Synonyms: bill, mandible, snout