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Glite Dictionary
🚢 Rear deck area 🦚 Fan-shaped tail 🐦 A small bird
fantail

fantail

7.2
A small bird from New Zealand and parts of Asia with a fan-shaped tail
  • noun
  • /ˈfænˌteɪl/
  • Australian
translation icon : fantail
  • As I hiked through the forest, a fantail fluttered by, its beautiful tail spread in a fan shape.

Examples

  • 'Damn the dam,' cried the fantail as he flew into...

    Billy (2011)

  • I don't think we should strive for the fantail pigeon look, do you?

    The Great Muppet Caper (1981)

  • Like a mottled chick, she thought—no, a scarlet fantail.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • Oriental and Australian fantails and many hummingbirds solve their construction problems this way, but some other birds prefer to hang their nests and thus need support from above, not below.

    Academic text (1994)

  • The fantail is known for its distinctive tail, which fans out when it is excited or alarmed.

  • While birdwatching, I spotted a fantail darting between the trees, showcasing its stunning tail feathers.

Surface Forms

fantail singular
fantails plural

Morphology

fantail = fan + tail (transparent) = fan + tail

The bird's name is literal: a bird identified by a fan-shaped tail, so the compound is directly meaningful.

Etymology

Fantail for the small bird comes from fan and tail, because the bird opens its tail like a fan when it moves. So the bird is simply named for its clear fan-shaped tail.