Words I had to look up while doing my Mandarin homework.
@villainousfriend moorhen! looking up bird names is always worthwhile
@soph_sol @villainousfriend going to be honest with you, I simply assumed moorhens lived on moors, until I saw that water character
@Betty @villainousfriend @soph_sol wikipedia seems to think the term moor does not necessarily preclude being a wetland, particularly historically, so perhaps the moors moorhens were found on were the boggier ones?
@villainousfriend @Satsuma @Betty just checked the etymology and it comes from the Old English mor, meaning "morass, swamp"
and there's this interesting quote from a dictionary of English place-names:
The basic sense in place names is 'marsh', a kind of low-lying wetland possibly regarded as less fertile than mersc 'marsh.' The development of the senses 'dry heathland, barren upland' is not fully accounted for but may be due to the idea of infertility. [Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names]
@soph_sol @villainousfriend @Satsuma huh! Okay, moors just got more desolate, I guess.
@Satsuma @Betty @soph_sol ohh, that would make sense!