- stork (n.)
- Old English storc, related to stear "stiff, strong" (see stark), from Proto-Germanic *sturkaz (cf. Old Norse storkr, Middle Dutch storc, Old High German storah, German Storch "stork"). Perhaps so called with reference to the bird's stiff or rigid posture. But some connect the word to Greek torgos "vulture."
Old Church Slavonic struku, Russian sterch, Lithuanian starkus, Magyar eszterag, Albanian sterkjok "stork" are Germanic loan-words. The fable that babies are brought by storks is from German and Dutch nursery stories, no doubt from the notion that storks nesting on one's roof meant good luck, often in the form of family happiness.