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Glite Dictionary
the stork

the stork

8.6
A story that a bird brings a new baby to a family
  • noun
  • Baby Talk
translation icon : la cigüeña
  • As children, we were told that the stork brought our baby brother.

Examples

  • Whenever someone was pregnant, jokes about the stork delivering a bundle would circulate.

  • Their friends announced that the stork would be visiting them soon.

  • Did the stork really bring the baby?

  • The legend says the stork delivers babies.

  • As children, we were told that the stork brought our baby brother.

  • Their friends announced that the stork would be visiting them soon.

  • Whenever someone was pregnant, jokes about the stork delivering a bundle would circulate.

Surface Forms

the stork singular
the storks plural

Morphology

the + stork

This phrase relies on a folkloric, euphemistic trope (the stork delivering babies) rather than a compositional meaning built from 'stork' as a bird and the definite article. The connection is cultural and idiomatic, so an average B1 learner who only knows the constituent words would not reliably infer the intended meaning without prior exposure, despite the trope existing in several languages.

Etymology

The stork may come from an old story about a white bird, the stork, carrying a baby in a cloth bundle in its beak and leaving it at a house. Because people pictured the bird 'bringing a baby', calling the stork became a gentle way to say 'a baby is coming'.