nightbirdn.
/ˈnʌɪtbəːd/, U.S. /ˈnaɪtˌbərd/ 1. A bird that is chiefly (or only) heard or seen at night; esp. an owl, a nightingale, a petrel, or (English regional (Sussex)) a moorhen.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > birds > [noun] > nocturnal
nightbirdc1450
the world > animals > birds > order Strigiformes or owl > [noun]
owleOE
howlec1430
mouser1440
howletc1450
nightbirdc1450
owlet1542
night owl1581
jenny-howlet1600
tu-whit tu-whoo1604
Welsh ambassador1608
mouse-catcher1611
Welsh falconera1640
hooter1673
hobhouchin1682
flying-cat1699
houchin1746
jumbie bird1827
the world > animals > birds > order Passeriformes (singing) > family Muscicapidae (thrushes, etc.) > subfamily Turdinae > [noun] > genus Luscinia > luscinia megarhynchos (nightingale)
nightgaleeOE
nightingalec1275
nightbirdc1450
Philomenec1500
Philomela1563
Philomel1579
rossignol?1590
Daulian bird1894
c1450 (c1350) Alexander & Dindimus (Bodl.) (1929) 723 (MED) Minerva men worschipen..And bringen hure a niht-brid, a bakke or an oule.
1595 R. Southwell Christs Sleeping Friends in Moeoniæ 12 When the sunne the brightest shew doth make, In darkest shroudes the night birdes them infolde.
1657 R. Baxter One Sheet for Ministry §11. 6 The Owl will call the Lark a night-bird.
1686 J. Bunyan Bk. for Boys & Girls xxxv. 46 Let not the voice of night-Birds us afflict, And of our mis-spent Summer us convict.
1720 L. Theobald Richard II i. 3 Thy Sun sets weeping in the lowly West, And Night-birds triumph in his known Decay.
1752 W. Mason Elfrida 5 The night-bird's 'custom'd spray What time she pours her wild, and artless song.
1798 S. T. Coleridge France in Fears & Solitude 13 Ye woods, that listen to the night-bird's singing.
1819 P. B. Shelley Similes in Athenaeum (1832) 25 Aug. 554/2 As two gibbering night birds flit From their bowers of deadly yew.
1840 E. Blyth et al. Cuvier's Animal Kingdom 195 The Moth-hunters have the same light, soft plumage..that characterizes other night-birds.
1879 H. N. Moseley Notes by Naturalist on ‘Challenger’ 452 Here [sc. in Tahiti]..were numerous burrows of a Petrel... The natives call the bird ‘Night-bird’, just as the inhabitants of Tristan da Cunha call the Burrowing Petrels there ‘Night-birds’.
1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Colonial Reformer (1891) 215 The..sound of the night-bird broke the profound..silence.
1917 E. Wharton Summer vii. 107 In the deep darkness of the garden she heard..a secret rustle of branches, as though some night-bird brushed them.
1952 T. Armstrong Adam Brunskill iv. 127 The occasional cries of ewes and lambs and nightbirds carried very clearly.
1973 Times 17 Feb. 14/7 More understandable..is the moorhen's Sussex name of ‘nightbird’, for..they have young and shriek and scream throughout the night to frighten off intruders.
2. A person who is habitually up or out at night, esp. to socialize. Formerly: spec. †a nocturnal thief (obsolete).
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > day and night > night > [noun] > one who brings or likes night or darkness
owlc1390
night-waker?c1475
nightbird1548
night wanderer1576
night owl1594
noctifer1667
night larka1770
nighthawk1868
the mind > possession > taking > stealing or theft > thief > [noun] > who steals at night
nightbird1548
night-hooker1601
night-snapa1625
moonman1632
nighthawk1800
1548 R. Crowley Confut. N. Shaxton sig. Eiiiv For the daye birdes can holde theym selues contente wyth thys lyght. As for the lurkinge night byrds that fle the lyghte [etc.].
1581 B. Rich Don Simonides i. sig. Mij What honest Frier would haue lent his Coule to couer a sinne more then damnable, nay what man of vertue would be thought to be aquainted with our night birde Monedula.
a1586 Sir P. Sidney Astrophel & Stella in Compl. Wks. (1922) II. 271 There shall he finde all vices overthrowe; Not by rude force, but sweetest soveraigntie Of reason, from whose light, the night birdes flie.
1618 M. Dalton Countrey Justice 66 For as one saieth, such Night-walkers (or night birds) are ominous.
1646 R. Boyle Let. 30 Mar. in T. Birch Life in Wks. (1744) I. 16 These night-birds used to exercise their charity in easing weary travellers of..money and portmanteaus.
1697 C. Leslie Snake in Grass (ed. 2) 37 A very Night-Bird, and Vagrant, Bursten'd with Folly and Revenge.
a1721 Sheffield Wks. (1729) I. 122 When o'er his Cups this Night-Bird chirping sits.
1839 J. H. Ingraham Captain Kyd II. i. viii These fellows are night-birds. His object is to hide himself till dark, and then..pop down upon us.
1870 D. J. Kirwan Palace & Hovel xxxii. 481 When the dancing places..close, this door remains open to catch all stray night birds who can find no other resting place.
1900 Westm. Gaz. 19 Dec. 2/3 Perish Scrambling breakfast, formal lunch! Hardened night-birds fondly cherish All the subtle charms of ‘brunch’.
1939 J. Joyce Finnegans Wake 438 I have every reason to know that rogues' gallery of nightbirds and bitchfanciers.
1990 Sunday Tel. (Sydney) 9 Dec. 66/1 ‘I am a nightbird’, he once said. ‘Life and enjoyment begin when daylight fades.’
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.c1450