lark

Meanings

Noun

• Any of various small, singing passerine birds of the family Alaudidae.
• Any of various similar-appearing birds, but usually ground-living, such as the meadowlark and titlark.
• One who wakes early; one who is up with the larks.
• A romp, frolic, some fun.
• A prank.

Verb

• To catch larks .
• To sport, engage in harmless pranking.
• To frolic, engage in carefree adventure.

Related

Narrower meaning words

• woodlark, skylark, magpie-lark, horned lark, sea lark, crested lark, shorelark

Origin

• From Middle English larke, laverke, from Old English lāwerce, laewerce, lāuricæ, from Proto-Germanic *laiwarikǭ, *laiwazikǭ (compare dialectal West Frisian larts, Dutch leeuwerik, German Lerche), from *laiwaz (borrowed into Finnish leivo, Estonian lõo), of unknown ultimate origin with no definitive cognates outside of Germanic.
• Origin uncertain, either
• from a northern English dialectal term lake/laik (around 1300, from Old Norse leika), with an intrusive -r- as is common in southern British dialects; or
• a shortening of skylark (1809), sailors' slang, "play roughly in the rigging of a ship", because the common European larks were proverbial for high-flying; Dutch has a similar idea in speelvogel.