A small European plover bird with distinctive markings; also used to describe a silly or foolish person.
From Middle English, possibly from 'dote' (the bird was thought to be easily fooled by hunters) + '-erel' (diminutive suffix). The bird name reflects its supposed simplicity.
Medieval hunters called this bird 'dotterel' because it was apparently easy to catch—the name literally means it's so silly it almost asks to be captured, a judgment embedded in its taxonomy for centuries.
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