Flight of fancy naming.
As a child, I was a big LEGO® fan…before the tricked-out kits with “know-before-you-buy” specificity. Back then, our creativity was our own, resulting in something new every time we dumped the pieces out onto the floor.
Fast forward to Nanoblock. I was feeling a little nostalgic as this Bald Eagle was coming into being. Curiosity also dug in its claws surrounding the name of this national treasure.
Bald this bird is not! In New Latin, it was a “sea eagle” (haliaeetus), which became “white head” (leucocephalus) in Latinized Ancient Greek. “Piebald,” a term for horses and other animals with an alternating and irregularly spotted color pattern that includes a large presence of white, gives us “bald.” Piebald (black and white) is to Brits what pinto (spotted or patched) is to Americans and Canadians. And now you’ve got the second half of the magpie’s story.
Devign 