owl

Meanings

Noun

• Any of various birds of prey of the order Strigiformes that are primarily nocturnal and have forward-looking, binocular vision, limited eye movement, and good hearing.
• A person seen as having owl-like characteristics, especially appearing wise or serious, or being nocturnally active.
• The owl pigeon.
• A politician with moderate views that are neither hawkish nor dovish.
• Any of various nymphalid butterflies having large eyespots on the wings.

Verb

• To smuggle contraband goods.

Origin

• From Middle English oule, owle, from Old English ūle, from Proto-Germanic *uwwalǭ (compare West Frisian ûle, Dutch uil, Danish and Norwegian ugle, German Eule), diminutive of *uwwǭ (compare German Uhu), of imitative origin or a variant of *ūfaz, *ūfǭ (compare Old English ūf or hūf, Swedish uv, Bavarian Auf), from Proto-Indo-European *up- (compare Latvian ũpis, Czech úpět, Avestan 𐬎𐬟𐬌𐬌𐬈𐬌𐬨𐬌. A Germanic variant *uwwilǭ was the source of Old High German ūwila (German Eule).