thick-knee
(ˈθɪkniː)
Also thicknee.
A name for any bird of the genus Œdicnemus, esp. the Stone Curlew, Norfolk or Great Plover, Œ. scolopax (Œ. crepitans, Temminck); so called from the enlargement of the tibio-tarsal joint.
| 1816 Leach Cat. Mamm. & B. in Brit. Mus. 28 Fedoa Œdicnemus Common thicknee, Wiltshire. 1840 Penny Cycl. XVI. 402/1 The..Thick-knee, Thick-kneed Bustard. 1866 Owen Vertebr. Anim. xiv. II. 26 The ‘Thick-knees’..and Bustards..have the four-notched sternum. 1896 List Anim. Zool. Soc. 520 Œdicnemus grallarius, Australian Thicknee... Œ. superciliaris, Peruvian Thicknee. |
So ˈthick-ˌkneed a., having thick knees; esp. in thick-kneed bustard or thick-kneed plover, the Stone Curlew.
| 1776 Pennant Zool. (ed. 4) I. 244 Bustard, thick-kneed. 1840 [see thick-knee]. 1893 Newton Dict. Birds 129 The Curlew of inlanders, or Stone-Curlew—called also..most wrongly..the Thick-knee or Thick-kneed Bustard. |