bird

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /bɜːd/, US /bɝːd/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English brid, bird,^[2][3] inherited from Old English bridd (“young bird, nestling”), with a rare form bird,^[4][2][3] of unknown or uncertain origin, with no corresponding form in any other Germanic language.^[4][2][5] A connection with brood and breed is rejected by the OED as quite inadmissible.^[4] The metathesis of -r- and -i- was complete by the 15th century;^[4] brid was the main form until the later 1400s.^[2] Liberman argues that bird need not come from bridd by metathesis, and derives it, by a now rejected etymology that he thinks the best available, from the root of Old English beran “to give birth” with a suffix -d.^[6][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old English bridd, a young bird: probably about 750, in the Phoenix, according to Barnhart,^[2] before 800 in the OED.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The usual Old English word for a bird was fugol, modern fowl;^[4][5] as fowl came to mean chiefly poultry, the word for the young took over the general sense.^[4][5] The OED has “any feathered vertebrate” from before 1225,^[7] but up to about 1400 bird still often meant a nestling or chick, and also the young of other animals and children.^[4][7] A man, a fellow, is from 1799,^[5] and a prisoner from 1580.^[8] In Middle English a separate burd, also spelled bird, meant a maiden or lady, and was confused with this word;^[5][9][4] the modern British slang for a young woman is recorded from 1838 in the New Partridge and 1915 in Etymonline, and appears to be a revival.^[10][4][5] A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush is first recorded in the mid-15th century,^[5] and birds of a feather flock together a century later.^[5] To give someone the bird, to boo or jeer, comes from early 19th-century theatre slang the big bird, the hissing goose;^[5][4] it was transferred in the 1960s to the rude finger gesture.^[4] Doing bird, serving a prison sentence, is from rhyming slang birdlime “time”.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 750 – a young bird.^[2]
• a. 1225 – any bird.^[7]
• mid-15th century – a bird in the hand.^[5]
• 1799 – a man, a fellow.^[5]
• 1838 – a young woman.^[10]
• 1960s – the rude gesture.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A warm-blooded, egg-laying, feathered vertebrate with forelimbs developed as wings.
2. Such an animal hunted as game, or served as food.
3. (informal) A person, especially an odd one: a strange old bird.
4. (chiefly British slang) A young woman.
5. (slang) An obscene gesture of contempt made with the middle finger.
6. (British slang) Time spent in prison.

Verb

1. To observe and identify wild birds in their natural surroundings.
2. To trap or shoot birds.

Word family

• birding
• birdlike
• birdless

Related words

• fowl
• burd
• birdlime

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Liberman, Anatoly (2008), An Analytic Dictionary of English Etymology: An Introduction, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press
7. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge