osprey

\ \ [15] Etymologically, the osprey is simply a ‘bird of prey’. Its name comes from ospreit, the Old French descendant of Vulgar Latin *avispreda, which in turn was a conflation of Latin avis praedae ‘bird of prey’ (avis is the source of English augur, auspice, aviary, and aviation, and praeda is the ancestor of English prey). The specific association with the ‘osprey’ came about in Old French through confusion with the coincidentally similar osfraie ‘osprey’.

\ \ This meant etymologically ‘bone-breaker’. It came from Latin ossifraga, a compound formed from os ‘bone’ (source of English ossify [18]) and frangere ‘break’ (source of English fracture, fragment, etc). It was originally applied to the lammergeier, a large vulture, in allusion to its habit of dropping its prey from a great height on to rocks beneath in order to break its bones, but was subsequently also used for the osprey.

\ \ Cf.⇒ AVIARY, PREY