few 10,000s of years. Etymology The Modern English word can be traced back to Proto-Germanic *sturkaz. Nearly every Germanic language has a descendant of this proto-language word to indicate the (white) stork. Related names also occur in Latvian, stārķis, and some Slavic languages, e.g. štorklja in Slovenian and “щъркел” [shtŭrkel] in Bulgarian, originating as Germanic loanwords. According to the New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, the Germanic root is probably related to the modern English "stark", in reference to the stiff or rigid posture of a European species, the white stork. A non-Germanic word linked to it may be Greek torgos ("vulture"). In some West Germanic languages cognate words of a different etymology exist, e.g. ooievaar in Dutch. They originate from *uda-faro, uda being related to water meaning something like swamp or moist area and faro being related to fare; so *uda-faro is something like he who walks in the swamp. In later times this name got reanalysed as *ōdaboro, ōda "fortune, wealth" + boro "bearer" meaning he who brings wealth adding to the myth of storks as maintainers of welfare and bringers of children. In Estonian, "stork" is toonekurg, which is derived from toonela (underworld in Estonian folklore) + kurg (crane). At the times storks were named, the now-rare black stork was probably the more common species. In fiction Storks have many stories surrounding them, like in Aesop's (6th century BCE) fables The Farmer and the Stork and The Fox and the Stork. The first fable begins with a farmer plowing his fields, sowing his seeds and spreading his nets. These nets catch several cranes who hopped behind him picking up the seed. Along with the cranes tangled in his net, the farmer discovered a stork with a broken leg. The stork begged the farmer to spare his life, arguing that he was not a crane, but a stork. He pointed to his feathers and told the farmer that they didn't resemble a crane's feathers in the least. The farmer laughed at the stork and said, "I have taken you with these robbers, the cranes, and you must die in their company." A common euphemism is that storks deliver babies to their mothers instead of mothers giving birth. Storks play a prominent role in Hans Christian Andersen's lengthy fairy tale, "The Marsh King's Daughter." The Pokemon Bombirdier, introduced in the 9th generation of the series, is based on a stork.