Forms: α. 4 botor, -ur(e, 5 botore, -oore, -owre, butturre, -ir, 5–7 butor, 6 buttour, buttur, -our, buture, 7 bewter, boter. β. bitoure, biture, 4–5 bi-, bytore, betoure, 5 betore, owre, bytturre, 5–7 bittor, 6 bi-, bytture, bittarde, byture, byter, bytter, 6–7 bitter, bitour, byttour, 6–8 bittour, 7 byttur. γ. 6 bittorn, 7 bitturn, -erne, -orne, 7– bittern. (Also dial. 7– bitterbump, BUTTERBUMP.) [ME. botor, a. OF. butor, of obscure origin, perhaps related to rare L. būtiōn-em in same sense. (The med.L. butorius, bitorius are f. the mod. langs.) The Eng. forms in byt-, bit- prob. represent Fr. ü. The Fr. had a fem. butorde, with which cf. 16th c. Eng. bittarde. The final -n in 16th c. bittorn, mod. bittern, is due to some mistaken analogy: cf. alder, aldern, elder, eldern, etc. The mod.L. zoological name botaurus, is an adaptation of the OF. and ME. botor, with a reference to a fanciful derivation from bos taurus, taurus being applied by Pliny (X. xlii), to a bird that bellows like an ox, and the bittern being called taureau d’etang, boeuf de marais, meerrind, moosochse, and similar names in many langs.]
A genus of grallatorial birds (Botaurus), nearly allied to the herons, but smaller. spec. The species B. stellaris, a native of Europe and the adjoining parts of the Old World, but now rare in Great Britain on account of the disappearance of the marshes that it frequents. It is noted for the ‘boom’ which it utters during the breeding season, whence its popular names mire-drum, and bull of the bog, and the scientific term botaurus (see above).
α, β. [c. 1000. in Wr.-Wülcker, Voc., 131. Bitorius, pintorus, wrenna. (App. some mistake.)]
c. 1330. Arth. & Merl., 3130. Swannes, pecokes and botors.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Wife’s T., 116. As a Bitore [v.r. bytore, bitor, betoure] bombleth in the Myre.
1388. Wyclif, Isa. xiii. 22. And bitouris [1382 ȝellende foules; Vulg. ululæ; 1611 wild beasts of the islands] schulen answere there.
c. 1420. Liber Cocorum (1862), 35. To wodcok, snype, curlue also, The betore in fere with hom schalle goo.
c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems (1840), 202. The botoore that etith the greet eel.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, F vj. A Sege of betouris.
a. 1529. Skelton, Ph. Sparowe, 432. The bitter with his bumpe.
1530. Palsgr., 202/1. Buttour a byrde, butor.
1533–4. Act 25 Hen. VIII., xi. § 5. Euery egge of euery bittour, heroune, or shouelarde. viiid.
1543. Traheron, Vigo’s Chirurg., II. ix. 42. Cranes, geese, bittardes.
1627. P. Fletcher, Locusts, I. viii. Their hoarse-base-hornes like fenny Bittours souad.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., III. xxv. § 4. That a Bittor maketh that mugient noyse, or as we terme it Bumping by putting its bill into a reed.
γ. 1515. Barclay, Eglog., ii. The partriche, plover, bittorn and heronsewe.
1611. Bible, Isa. xxiv. 1. The cormorant and the bitterne shall possesse it.
1638. Suckling, Aglaura, III. i. A Bittorne whooping in a reed is better music.
1641. J. Jackson, True Evang. T., iii. 209. The Hawk hath struck down the Bitturn.
1770. Goldsm., Des. Vill., 44. The hollow-sounding bittern guards its nest.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., I. xxxi. And the bittern sound his drum, Booming from the sedgy shallow.
a. 1857. Longf., Sunr. on Hills, 18. The noisy bittern wheeled his … way.
