Wingbeats

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The rhythmic movement of a bird's wings as it flaps to achieve flight
2. The characteristic sound or motion produced by the flapping of wings in birds while in the air
3. A measure of the frequency of wing motion, commonly observed in avian species during hovering or flight

Etymology: "Wingbeats" is simply the plural of "wingbeat", a compound of two very old English words: "wing" and "beat". Both parts are native to English rather than borrowed from Latin or French. "Wing" comes from Old Norse "vængr", and "beat" descends from the Old English "bēatan", meaning to strike or hit repeatedly. Put together, the compound describes one stroke of a bird's wings, and the plural counts those strokes across a flight. The meaning is literal from start to finish. The word names the rhythmic striking of feathered wings against the air, the thrum a pigeon makes taking off or the slow, deliberate pulse of a heron crossing a marsh. Nothing in its history has been stretched into an abstract sense; it describes the same physical motion that the two parts have always described.

Synonyms: flaps, beats