heron
HAIR-uhn · noun
Origin
Heron comes from Middle English heroun, from Anglo-Norman heiron, from Medieval Latin hairō, tracing back through Frankish and Proto-West Germanic *hraigrō to Proto-Germanic *haigrô. That Germanic root is imitative, built from a Proto-Indo-European base *(s)kreik-/*(s)kreig- meaning 'to screech, creak.'
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Journey
The word's sound shifted along the way — the Germanic form *haigrô is a dissimilation of an earlier *hraigrô, which survives more directly in Old English hrāgra, Dutch reiger, and German Reiher.
Related words
Egret comes from the same Germanic root, making these two long-legged wading birds etymological cousins. Welsh crëyr and Ancient Greek krízō, meaning 'to creak, screech,' point back to the same screeching origin.