Word of the Day

: December 12, 2006

aerie

noun AIR-ee

What It Means

1 : the nest of a bird on a cliff or a mountaintop

2 : an elevated often secluded dwelling, structure, or position

aerie in Context

Joe lives in a sleek, 20th-floor aerie with a spectacular view of the city.

Did You Know?

English poet John Milton put a variant of "aerie" to good use in Paradise Lost (1667), writing "...there the eagle and the stork / On cliffs and cedar tops their eyries build." But Milton wasn't the first to use the term, which comes to us via Medieval Latin and Old French and probably traces to an earlier Latin word for "nest" or "lair." English speakers had been employing "aerie" as a word for "bird's nest" for more than a century when Milton penned those words. Eventually, "aerie" was applied to human dwellings as well as birds' nests. At first, this sense referred to dwellings nestled high up in mountains or hills. These days, you're also likely to hear high-rise city apartments or offices referred to as "aeries."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.