Other forms: egrets
An egret is a long-legged white wading bird. A little egret, egrets on the marsh, a great white egret.
The plumes grown in the breeding season were worth more than their weight in gold for hats, and the trade nearly wiped the birds out, which is what led to the founding of bird protection societies. Little egrets now breed across southern England.
1nounegretA long-legged white wading bird.
“A white egret stood in the shallow water, waiting to catch a fish.”
egret is a bird.
Old Occitan aigreta is a diminutive of aigron, a heron.
Frankish
*haigro — heron
Medieval Latin
hairo
Old Occitan
aigreta
English, today
egret
Built from
From Middle English -, from Anglo-Norman - egret, aigrette (“egret”), from Old Occitan aigreta, diminutive of aigron (“heron”), from Medieval Latin hairo, from Frankish haigro (“heron”). Cognate with Old High German heigaro (“heron”), Old English hrāgra (“heron”). a doublet of aigrette. More at heron.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA