lark

See also: Lark

English

a crested lark (Galerida cristata)

Alternative forms

laverock, lavrock

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) enPR: läk, IPA^(key): /lɑːk/
(General American) enPR: lärk, IPA^(key): /lɑɹk/
Audio (US) (file)
Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)k
Homophone: lock (non-rhotic with father-bother merger)

Etymology 1

From Middle English larke, laverke, from Old English lāwerce, lǣwerce, lāuricæ, from Proto-Germanic *laiwarikǭ, *laiwazikǭ (compare dialectal West Frisian larts, Dutch leeuwerik, German Lerche), from *laiwaz (borrowed into Finnish leivo, Estonian lõo), of unknown ultimate origin with no definitive cognates outside of Germanic.

Noun

lark (plural larks)

Any of various small, singing passerine birds of the family Alaudidae.
Any of various similar-appearing birds, but usually ground-living, such as the meadowlark and titlark.
(by extension) One who wakes early; one who is up with the larks.
Synonyms: early bird, early riser
Antonym: owl

Hyponyms

(species in Alaudidae): woodlark, skylark, magpie-lark, horned lark, sea lark, crested lark, shorelark

Derived terms

bushlark (Mirafra spp.)
crested lark (Galerida cristata)
calandra lark (Melanocorypha spp.)
day lark
happy as a lark
horned lark (Eremophila alpestris)
lark bunting (Calamospiza melanocorys)
lark sparrow (Chondestes grammacus)
larker
lark's-heel (Tropaeolum majus)
lark's tongue
larkspur (Consolida spp., Delphinium spp.)
magpie-lark (Grallina cyanoleuca)
meadowlark
mudlark
rise with the lark
sand lark (Alaudala rayta)
sea lark (Anthus petrosus et al.)
shorelark (Eremophila spp.)
skylark (Alauda arvensis)
titlark (Anthus pratensis)
up with the lark
woodlark (Lullula arborea)

Translations

bird

Albanian: laureshë (sq) f
Arabic: قُبَّرَة‎ f (qubbara)
Armenian: արտույտ (hy) (artuyt)
Azerbaijani: torağay (az)
Basque: hegatxabal
Belarusian: жа́варанак m (žávaranak)
Breton: alc'hweder (br) m
Bulgarian: чучули́га (bg) f (čučulíga)
Catalan: alosa (ca) f
Chinese:
Mandarin: 雲雀／云雀 (zh) (yúnquè)
Czech: skřivan (cs) m
Danish: lærke c
Dutch: leeuwerik (nl) m
Esperanto: alaŭdo (eo)
Estonian: lõoke (et)
Finnish: kiuru (fi), leivo (fi), leivonen (fi)
French: alouette (fr) f
Friulian: lodule, odule
Galician: laverca (gl) f, cotovía (gl) f
Georgian: ტოროლა (ka) (ṭorola)
German: Lerche (de) f
Greek: κορυδαλλός (el) m (korydallós), (colloquial) σταρήθρα (el) f (staríthra)
Ancient: κορυδός m (korudós), κόρυδος m (kórudos)
Hungarian: pacsirta (hu)
Icelandic: lævirki (is) m
Irish: fuiseog f, circín starraiceach m
Italian: allodola (it) f, lodola f
Japanese: 雲雀 (ja) (ひばり, hibari)
Korean: 종다리 (ko) (jongdari), 노고지리 (nogojiri) (obsolete)
Kurdish:
Central Kurdish: چوڕە‎ (çurre)
Ladino: lodola f
Latin: alauda f
Latvian: cīrulis
Lithuanian: vieversys (lt) m, vyturys (lt) m
Low German:
German Low German: Lark (nds) f, Lurk f, Lörk f, Lörke f, Lerke f; Lewark f, Levark (nds) f, Levalk f, Lewrik f, Lewrink f, Leerk (nds) f, Lauerk (nds) f, Leving (nds) f
Luxembourgish: Léierchen f
Macedonian: чучулига f (čučuliga)
Maltese: alwetta, bilbla
Maori: hīoi, pīhoihoi, whioi
Northern Sami: leivvoš
Norwegian:
Bokmål: lerke (no) m or f
Nynorsk: lerke f
Occitan: alauseta (oc) f
Old English: lāwerce f
Old Norse: lævirki m
Ottoman Turkish: طویغار‎ (toygar), تارلا قوشی‎ (tarla kuşu), چایر قوشی‎ (çayır kuşu)
Persian: چکاوک‎ (fa) (čakâvak)
Plautdietsch: Leewoakj m
Polish: skowronek (pl) m
Portuguese: cotovia (pt) f
Romani: chirikli-gilibani, chiriklo-gilibano m
Romanian: ciocârlie (ro) f
Romansch: lodola f
Russian: жа́воронок (ru) m (žávoronok)
Sardinian: allòdola
Scots: laverock
Scottish Gaelic: uiseag f
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: шева f, шевpљугa f
Roman: ševa (sh) f, ševrljuga (sh) f
Slovak: škovránok m
Slovene: škrjanec (sl) m
Sorbian:
Lower Sorbian: škobrjonk m
Upper Sorbian: škowrončk m
Spanish: alondra (es) f
Swedish: lärka (sv) c
Turkish: tarla kuşu (tr), çayır kuşu (tr), toygar (tr)
Ukrainian: жа́йворонок m (žájvoronok)
Vietnamese: chim chiền chiện
Volapük: laud (vo)
Welsh: ehedydd m
West Frisian: ljurk c
Westrobothnian: lȧrk m, lȧrkj m

one who wakes early

Bulgarian: ранобудник m (ranobudnik)
Czech: ranní ptáče
Dutch: vroege vogel m
Finnish: aamuvirkku (fi)
French: lève-tôt (fr) m
German: Frühaufsteher (de) m, Frühaufsteher (de) m, Lerche (de) f
Hungarian: korán kelő, pacsirta (hu)
Italian: mattiniero (it) m
Lithuanian: vyturys (lt) m, vyturys (lt) m
Polish: ranny ptaszek (pl) m
Romanian: persoană matinală f
Russian: жа́воронок (ru) m (žávoronok)
Spanish: madrugador (es) m
Swedish: lärka (sv) c

Verb

lark (third-person singular simple present larks, present participle larking, simple past and past participle larked)

To catch larks (type of bird).
to go larking

References

lark on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Alaudidae on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
Alaudidae on Wikispecies.Wikispecies

Etymology 2

Uncertain, either

from a northern English dialectal term lake/laik (“to play”) (around 1300, from Old Norse leika (“to play (as opposed to work)”)), with an intrusive -r- as is common in southern British dialects; or
a shortening of skylark (1809), sailors' slang, "play roughly in the rigging of a ship", because the common European larks were proverbial for high-flying; Dutch has a similar idea in speelvogel (“playbird, a person of markedly playful nature”).

Noun

lark (plural larks)

A romp, frolic, some fun.
- 1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], chapter 43, in Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress. […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […], OCLC 558204586:
  ‘Ha! ha!’ laughed Master Bates, ‘what a lark that would be, wouldn’t it, Fagin? I say, how the Artful would bother ’em wouldn’t he?’
- 2011 August 4, Stephen Holden, “Stoned Archive: Wild Ride Of the Merry Pranksters”, in The New York Times‎, ISSN 0362-4331:
  Thanks partly to Tom Wolfe’s raised-eyebrow account, “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test,” that bohemian lark has been retrospectively hailed as the flash point of the emerging hippie counterculture.
- 2018 November, Alexis C. Madrigal, “The Dangers of YouTube for Young Children”, in The Atlantic‎:
  What began as a lark has grown into something very, very big, inflating the company’s ambitions.
A prank.
- 1912, George Bernard Shaw, “Act V”, in Pygmalion‎:
  DOOLITTLE. […] thanks to your silly joking, he leaves me a share in his Pre-digested Cheese Trust worth three thousand a year on condition that I lecture for his Wannafeller Moral Reform World League as often as they ask me […] .
  HIGGINS. The devil he does! Whew! [Brightening suddenly] What a lark!

Synonyms

whim, especially in phrase on a whim, see also Thesaurus:whim

Derived terms

on a lark

Related terms

skylark (in verb sense "play")

Translations

romp, frolic, some fun

Bulgarian: лудория (bg) f (ludorija), веселие (bg) n (veselie)
Czech: legrace (cs) f, špás (cs) m, blbiny f pl, blbnutí n
Dutch: gedol n
Finnish: hullutus
Maori: tuapa
Polish: heca (pl) f
Russian: заба́ва (ru) f (zabáva)

prank

Bulgarian: шега (bg) f (šega), закачка (bg) f (zakačka)
Czech: žertík m
Dutch: vlerkenstreek
Finnish: pila (fi), kuje (fi)
Maori: hīanga
Russian: шу́тка (ru) f (šútka), прока́за (ru) f (prokáza)

Verb

lark (third-person singular simple present larks, present participle larking, simple past and past participle larked)

To sport, engage in harmless pranking.
- 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 68, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, OCLC 2057953:
  [T]hey laugh at us old boys,” thought old Pendennis. And he was not far wrong; the times and manners which he admired were pretty nearly gone—the gay young men “larked” him irreverently […]
- 1855, Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South, Chapter 35,
  […] the porter at the rail-road had seen a scuffle; or when he found it was likely to bring him in as a witness, then it might not have been a scuffle, only a little larking […]
To frolic, engage in carefree adventure.

Derived terms

lark about
lark around

Translations

sport, engage in harmless pranking

Dutch: dollen (nl)
Finnish: pilailla (fi), kujeilla (fi)

frolic, engage in carefree adventure

Bulgarian: лудувам (bg) (luduvam), забавлявам се (zabavljavam se)
Dutch: stoeien (nl)
Finnish: hullutella (fi), toilailla

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: шала f s
Roman: šala f s

References

Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “lark”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967

Anagrams

Karl, Klar, Kral, klar