In C. S. Lewis’ book The Magician’s Nephew, the horse Strawberry becomes Fledge, the father of winged horses. It didn’t occur to me until today why Lewis chose that name. I just thought it was an odd, arbitrary choice.
This morning I saw something that referred to a bird as unfledged which made me suspect the base “fledge” had something to do with flight, which it does. I knew the word fledgling—a bird just beginning to fly—but I had not made the connection between fledglings and Fledge.
If you’d like to read another etymology post, see Cats, Calendars, and Connections.
I was never prouder than (on the second listen-through of the books-on-tape) when my 5 year old made that connection all by herself. I had certainly never done it… but creative minds and all…