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  bitter melon bittern2  
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   The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition.  2000.
 
bittern1
 
SYLLABICATION:bit·tern
PRONUNCIATION:  btrn
NOUN: Any of several wading birds of the genera Botaurus and Ixobrychus, having mottled brownish plumage and a deep booming cry in the male.
ETYMOLOGY:Alteration (perhaps influenced by tern1) of Middle English bitour, from Old French butor, possibly from Vulgar Latin *buti-taurus : Latin bti, buzzard + Latin taurus, bull (after its cry); see tauro- in Appendix I.
 
 
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

CONTENTS · INDEX · ILLUSTRATIONS · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
  bitter melon bittern2  
 
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