nightingale

Etymology 1

From Middle English nyghtyngale, nightingale, niȝtingale, alteration (with intrusive n) of nyghtgale, nightegale, from Old English nihtegala, nihtegale (“nightingale; night-raven”, literally “night-singer”), from Proto-West Germanic *nahtigalā (“nightingale”), equivalent to night + gale. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Noachtegoal (“nightingale”), Dutch nachtegaal (“nightingale”), Low German Nachtigall (“nightingale”), German Nachtigall (“nightingale”), Danish nattergal (“thrush nightingale”), Swedish näktergal (“nightingale”), Icelandic næturgali (“nightingale”).

noun

1. A Eurasian and African songbird, Luscinia megarhynchos, family Muscicapidae, famed for its beautiful singing at night; a common nightingale.
   Nightingales have been spotted in this coppice.
   You sing like a nightingale, sport!
   And David's Lips are lock't; but in divine High piping Péhlevi, with "Wine! Wine! Wine! Red Wine!" — the Nightingale cries to the Rose That yellow Cheek of her's to'incarnadine. 1859, Edward Fitzgerald, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: The Astronomer-Poet of Persia, page 2
   The air, too, was heavy with perfume, and a nightingale, high in the heavens, gave out a cheery song of welcome. 1936, F.J. Thwaites, chapter XXII, in The Redemption, Sydney: H. John Edwards, published 1940, page 222

Etymology 2

Named after Florence Nightingale.

noun

1. A kind of flannel scarf with sleeves, formerly worn by invalids when sitting up in bed.