lechuza

Spanish

Etymology

From Old Spanish nechuza, influenced by leche (“milk”) due to a popular belief that owls “breastfeed” human infants at night.

Coromines supposes that Old Spanish nechuza developed via vowel dissimilation from an older *nochuza, a derivative of an also-unattested *nochua (as gentuza < gente), and that inherited from Latin noctua (“owl”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Spain) /leˈt͡ʃuθa/ [leˈt͡ʃu.θa]
• IPA^(key): (Latin America, Philippines) /leˈt͡ʃusa/ [leˈt͡ʃu.sa]

• Audio (Spain):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uθa
• Rhymes: -usa
• Syllabification: le‧chu‧za

Noun

lechuza f (plural lechuzas)

1. owl
2. barn owl (any species of owl from the family Tytonidae)

Coordinate terms

• búho

Derived terms

• lechuza blanca
• lechuza común
• lechuza negra
• lechuza tenebrosa
• lechuzo

 

References

• Joan Coromines, José A[ntonio] Pascual (1984) “lechuza”, in Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico [Critic Castilian and Hispanic Etymological Dictionary] (in Spanish), volume III (G–Ma), Madrid: Gredos, →ISBN, page 617

Further reading

• “lechuza”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10
• lechuza on the Spanish Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^es