Pheasant
Middle English: from Old French fesan, via Latin from Greek phasianos ‘(bird) of Phasis’, the name of a river in the Caucasus, from which the bird is said to have spread westwards.
wiktionary
From Middle English fesaunt, fesant, from Old French fesan, from Latin phāsiānus, from Ancient Greek φᾱσιανός(phāsianós), meaning “[bird] of the river Φᾶσις(Phâsis)”, from where, it was supposed, the bird spread to the west. Replaced native Old English wōrhana, a variant of mōrhana. More at moorhen.
etymonline
pheasant (n.)
well-known game bird, long domesticated in Europe, c. 1300 fesaunt (mid-12c. as a surname), from Anglo-French fesaunt, Old French faisan (13c.) "pheasant," from Latin phasianus (Medieval Latin fasianus), from Greek phasianos "a pheasant," literally "Phasian bird," from Phasis, the river flowing into the Black Sea in Colchis, where the birds were said to have been numerous.
The ph- was restored in English late 14c. (see ph). The unetymological -t is due to confusion with -ant, suffix of nouns formed from present participle of verbs in first Latin conjugation (compare ancient, pageant, tyrant, peasant). The Latin word also is the source of Spanish faisan, Portuguese feisão, German Fasan, Russian bazhantu.
