sacred ibis

9.9

A large white wading bird from Africa with a bare black head and neck, often shown in ancient Egyptian art

noun
/ˈseɪkrɪd ˈaɪbɪs/

South African

: íbis sagrado

The sacred ibis was commonly depicted in ancient Egyptian art and hieroglyphics.

Examples

A flock of sacred ibises waded along the banks of the Nile at sunset.
Many sacred ibises were found in ancient Egyptian tombs.
The museum’s ornithology section features a well-preserved sacred ibis specimen.
The sacred ibis is often seen near the Nile River.
A flock of sacred ibises waded along the banks of the Nile at sunset.
The sacred ibis was commonly depicted in ancient Egyptian art and hieroglyphics.
Many sacred ibises were found in ancient Egyptian tombs.

Synonyms

Threskiornis aethiopica

vssacred ibis

Specialized

9.9

A white African bird with a long curved beak and a black head and neck

is the common usual name used in everyday or nontechnical contexts

Surface Forms

sacred ibis singular

sacred ibises plural

Morphology

sacred + Ibis

The compound simply combines 'sacred' (venerated) and 'ibis' (a wading bird) to denote an ibis that is held in high respect; the MWE’s meaning is directly inferable from its parts. This type of noun + modifier composition is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both words would readily understand the phrase.

Etymology

Sacred ibis comes from ancient Egypt, where people saw the white bird, the ibis, as holy, so the word sacred was used because the bird was connected to the god Thoth and was often wrapped and buried for religious reasons. So the name shows it is an ibis that people once treated as 'holy'.