from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
noun A small brownish bunting (Emberiza hortulana) of Eurasia and Africa, eaten as a delicacy.
noun Any of several American birds, such as the bobolink and the sora.
from The Century Dictionary.
noun A gardener.
noun The garden-bunting, Emberiza hortulana, a small granivorous conirostral bird of the family Fringillidæ, inhabiting parts of Europe and Africa, highly esteemed as a table delicacy.
noun Some small bird like or likened to or mistaken for the ortolan.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
noun A European singing bird (Emberiza hortulana), about the size of the lark, with black wings. It is esteemed delicious food when fattened. Called also bunting.
noun In England, the wheatear (Saxicola œnanthe).
noun In America, the sora, or Carolina rail (Porzana Carolina). See sora.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
noun A small Europeanmigratorybunting, Emberiza hortulana, once eaten whole as a delicacy.
noun US Any of various similar birds, especially the bobolink, sora, or snow bunting.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
noun brownish Old World bunting often eaten as a delicacy
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[French, from Provençal, gardener, ortolan, from Latin hortulānus, from hortulus, diminutive of hortus, garden; see gher- in Indo-European roots.]
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From Middle French hortolan ("gardener"), from Latin hortulānus ("gardener").
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Examples
There is a small bird called the ortolan, which is highly esteemed by the Italian gourmands.
Consider late French President François Mitterrand, who enjoyed a very special delicacy: a small songbird called the ortolan, drowned in Armagnac, then flambéed and eaten whole.
Consider late French President François Mitterrand, who enjoyed a very special delicacy: a small songbird called the ortolan, drowned in Armagnac, then flambéed and eaten whole.
[Footnote: The ortolan is a very small bird, which is fattened in lamp lighted rooms at great expense, because it is found to be of a more delicate flavor when excluded from the daylight.
It was at the Oratoire that he earned the rudimentary elements of cookery and the rhythm of the seasons: trout, wild mushrooms and snails in the spring; melons, apricots and crayfish in the summer; hares, pheasants and ortolan in the autumn; ducks, geese and rabbit in the winter.
Unadulterated Ceres shall be our official caterer: when hunger shall have tamed our fastidious appetites into sobriety, a mumbled crust will relish like an ortolan.
- Lesage, The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, tr. Smollett, bk 9 ch. 9
"The ortolan is an almost mythical creature of French gastronomy. A migratory songbird the size of your thumb, it became just another illegal substance in the '70s, in part due to its preparation: take one 60g bird, force-feed it grapes and figs, drown in armagnac, roast.
Eating it is wreathed in ritual and folklore. After placing an embroidered cloth over your head to cover your eyes, the bird is held by the beak and consumed whole. It's said to be a culinary epiphany. Former French president Francois Mitterrand ate ortolan as part of his last great meal on New Year's Eve 1995, a week before his death."
- Simon Thomsen, 'Bistro Ortolan', smh.com.au, 17 Nov 2006.
colleen commented on the word ortolan
https://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jkz6y9Bc0ykpsZybHUg1N5ThegLg
September 21, 2007
reesetee commented on the word ortolan
Horrifying.
September 21, 2007
colleen commented on the word ortolan
It's been considered a delicacy for centuries. Um. *hands*
September 21, 2007
reesetee commented on the word ortolan
Still horrifying.
September 21, 2007
colleen commented on the word ortolan
And yet perversely fascinating!
September 21, 2007
chained_bear commented on the word ortolan
Eeyew.
October 2, 2007
yarb commented on the word ortolan
Unadulterated Ceres shall be our official caterer: when hunger shall have tamed our fastidious appetites into sobriety, a mumbled crust will relish like an ortolan.
- Lesage, The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, tr. Smollett, bk 9 ch. 9
October 8, 2008
bilby commented on the word ortolan
Colleen's link is unfortunately now unavailable.
"The ortolan is an almost mythical creature of French gastronomy. A migratory songbird the size of your thumb, it became just another illegal substance in the '70s, in part due to its preparation: take one 60g bird, force-feed it grapes and figs, drown in armagnac, roast.
Eating it is wreathed in ritual and folklore. After placing an embroidered cloth over your head to cover your eyes, the bird is held by the beak and consumed whole. It's said to be a culinary epiphany. Former French president Francois Mitterrand ate ortolan as part of his last great meal on New Year's Eve 1995, a week before his death."
- Simon Thomsen, 'Bistro Ortolan', smh.com.au, 17 Nov 2006.
October 30, 2008
vendingmachine commented on the word ortolan
"The only thing that tops kopi luwak coffee in terms of both squickiness and poshness is ortolan, a thankfully very rare French speciality."
July 14, 2015