cockatoo

English

Etymology

From Dutch kaketoe, borrowed from Malay kakaktua, kakatua. Spelling influenced by cock.

 cockatoo on Wikipedia

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

cockatoo (plural cockatoos)

1. A bird of the family Cacatuidae with a curved beak and a zygodactyl foot. [from 1610s]

   We saw some cockatoos in the aviary.

2. (slang, obsolete) A lookout posted during a two-up game, when gambling was illegal.

Synonyms

• cocky

Derived terms

• bare-eyed cockatoo
• black cockatoo
• blood-stained cockatoo
• casuarina cockatoo
• cockatoo apple
• cockatoo farmer
• cockatoo grass
• cockatoo parrot
• cockey
• cockie
• gang-gang cockatoo
• glossy black cockatoo
• Goffin's cockatoo
• Leadbeater's cockatoo
• Major Mitchell's cockatoo
• palm cockatoo
• pink and grey cockatoo
• pink cockatoo
• red-tailed black cockatoo
• roseate cockatoo
• rose-breasted cockatoo
• sulfur cockatoo
• sulfur-crested cockatoo
• sulphur cockatoo
• sulphur-crested cockatoo
• umbrella cockatoo
• white cockatoo
• yellow-crested cockatoo
• yellow-tailed black cockatoo

Descendants

• → Irish: cocatú
• → Maori: kokatu, koketu

Translations

a bird

Bengali: কাকাতুয়া (bn) (kakatuẏa) Bulgarian: какаду (kakadu) Burmese: ကတ္တဝါ (my) (katta.wa) Chinese: Mandarin: 鳳頭鸚鵡 / 凤头鹦鹉 (fèngtóu yīngwǔ) Czech: kakadu (cs) m Danish: kakadue c Dutch: kaketoe (nl) Esperanto: kakatuo (eo) Finnish: kakadu (fi) French: cacatoès (fr) m Galician: cacatúa (gl) f German: Kakadu (de) m Greek: κακατόης m (kakatóis) Hebrew: קקדו (he) m Hindi: काकातुआ m (kākātuā), काकतुआ (hi) m (kāktuā) Hungarian: kakadu (hu) Indonesian: burung kakaktua, kakatua (id), burung kakatua (id) Irish: cocatú m Italian: cacatua (it) m Japanese: 鸚鵡 (ja) (ōmu) Javanese: jakatuwa Macedonian: какаду n (kakadu) Malay: burung kakaktua, kakaktua (ms) Maori: kokatu, koketu Murik (New Guinea): kakrep Norwegian: Bokmål: kakadu m or f, kakadue (no) m or f Nynorsk: kakadu f, kakadue f Polish: kakadu (pl) n or f Portuguese: cacatua (pt) f, catatua f Romanian: cacadu m Russian: какаду́ (ru) m (kakadú) Samoan: kakato Spanish: cacatúa (es) f Swedish: kakadua (sv) c Tagalog: kalangay Thai: นกกระตั้ว (nɔk kratúa), กระตั้ว (th) (kratúa) Tok Pisin: koki Turkish: kakadu Volapük: kakad (vo), töpapapag (vo) Welsh: cocatŵ m, cocatŵod m pl

See also

• cockatiel
• corella
• galah
• Psittacidae

Further reading

• Douglas Harper (2001–2025), “cockatoo”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.