Lourie

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A colourful African bird of the turaco family, known for its crest and loud calls ; in Scots, a dark, heavy, threatening sky or a gloomy appearance
2. Any of several brightly plumed tree-dwelling birds of southern Africa in the turaco family ; a Scottish word for a sullen, overcast sky or a frowning look
3. A bright-crested, noisy turaco found in African forests ; a Scottish term describing a gloomy, lowering sky that threatens rain or a scowling face

Etymology: The bird and the Scottish word share a name only by accident of travel. The Afrikaans "loerie" was applied to the turacos of southern Africa, and it comes from the same Malay word "nuri" or "luri", meaning "parrot", that also gave English the word "lory". Malay sailors and traders carried that root across the Indian Ocean and into the languages of the Cape, where it was attached to a green, crested bird that looks nothing like a parrot's close relative but was evidently the closest thing available to name it by. The Scots sense, a dark, heavy, threatening sky, is a separate development that the source records alongside the bird meaning. Nothing in the source links the two senses directly, so the English-speaking reader meeting "lourie" in Scotland and the one meeting it in a field guide are encountering the same spelling from two different routes.

Synonyms: turaco, plantain-eater