{"id":24776,"date":"2026-10-02T15:10:50","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T15:10:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=24776"},"modified":"2026-10-02T15:18:36","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T15:18:36","slug":"birds-of-ill-omen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=24776","title":{"rendered":"Birds of Ill Omen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What links this bird with <strong>spells<\/strong> and <strong>charms<\/strong>? Let&#8217;s find out.<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/gridarendal\/31251098204\/in\/photolist-UBSAot-ToeLXH-PBy3J1-s4Kg4G-U2PwP9-U2Pu1o-U2P8Lf-2iZnvcF-bpxhFZ-U2Pk9L-bpxh6X-7Y9Etv-bpxhut-bpxhQZ-bpxhhe-sTbnXC\" title=\"Wryneck (Jynx torquilla), His\u00f8y, planned &quot;Raet National Park&quot;, South Coast of Norway\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/5807\/31251098204_1faa6e0acd_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"451\" alt=\"Wryneck (Jynx torquilla), His\u00f8y, planned &quot;Raet National Park&quot;, South Coast of Norway\"\/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The bird pictured above is a <strong>jynx<\/strong> [d\u0292\u026a\u014bks], <strong>Eurasian wryneck<\/strong> or  <strong>northern wryneck<\/strong>. It&#8217;s related to woodpeckers, and can be found across temperate regions of Europe and Asia during the summer, and in parts of tropical Africa and southern Asia in the winter. <\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s Latin name, <em>Jynx torquilla<\/em> comes from <em>iynx<\/em> (wryneck), from Ancient Greek <em>\u1f34\u03cb\u03b3\u03be<\/em> (\u00ed\u00fcnx &#8211; Eurasian wryneck, spell, charm, passionate yearing), and from Latin <em>torque\u014d<\/em> (to spin, whirl, twist, hurl, torment) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Jynx_torquilla\">source<\/a>]. <\/p>\n<p>It was once thought to be a bird of ill omen, perhaps because of how it twists its snake-like head and hisses as a threat display. As a result, it has sometimes been called the &#8220;snake-bird&#8221; [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Eurasian_wryneck\">source<\/a>]. <\/p>\n<p>Apparently wizards and witches used to tie wrynecks to a wheel and then whirl them round, believing that it would charm men into obedience and help to retreive unfaithful lovers [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%E1%BC%B4%CF%8B%CE%B3%CE%BE#Ancient_Greek\">source<\/a>]. <\/p>\n<p>The English word <strong>jinx<\/strong> [d\u0292\u026a\u014bks] comes from <strong>jynx<\/strong> the bird. As a noun, it means a hex, or an evil spell or a person or thing supposed to bring bad luck. As a verb, <strong>to jinx<\/strong> means to cast a spell on; to bring bad luck to; to cause something to happen by mentioning it, often used sarcastically; to cause a bad outcome through verbal expression of certainty about a good situation or result [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/jinx#English\">source<\/a>]. <\/p>\n<p>In order to mitigate the effects of a <strong>jinx<\/strong>, you might <strong>touch wood<\/strong> or <strong>knock on wood<\/strong>. This tradition apparently comes from ancient believes among Germanic peoples that trees influence fortune. Ancient Celtic peoples believed that touching wood would call on the spirits or gods of trees, and Christians connect(ed) the practise to the touching the wood of cross. There are similar traditions in many other places as well, apparently [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Knocking_on_wood\">source<\/a>]. <\/p>\n<p>Do you &#8216;touch wood&#8217; or &#8216;knock on wood&#8217; to avoid &#8216;tempting fate&#8217; after making a favourable prediction or boast, or to avoid <strong>jinxing<\/strong> something?<\/p>\n<p>If not, do you have other traditions?<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-5001128073855040\"\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- Blog horizontal --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\n     style=\"display:block\"\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-5001128073855040\"\n     data-ad-slot=\"1685480124\"\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What links this bird with spells and charms? Let&#8217;s find out. The bird pictured above is a jynx [d\u0292\u026a\u014bks], Eurasian wryneck or northern wryneck. It&#8217;s related to woodpeckers, and can be found across temperate regions of Europe and Asia during the summer, and in parts of tropical Africa and southern Asia in the winter. It&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,104,10,15,78],"tags":[164,158,704,705,708,138,281,709,707,163,706],"class_list":["post-24776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ancient-greek-","category-english","category-language","category-latin","category-words-and-phrases","tag-english","tag-etymology","tag-jinx","tag-jynx","tag-knock-on-would","tag-language","tag-omniglot","tag-superstitions","tag-touch-wood","tag-words","tag-wryneck"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24776"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24778,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24776\/revisions\/24778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}