birdman

Etymology

It is formed from English bird + man.^[1][2][3][4] The OED also records forms made from the genitive bird's and man.^[1] The sense of a part-human, part-bird figure on Rapa Nui follows the local term tangata manu, and the OED compares the senses of a bird-catcher and of a birdwatcher with the earlier birder.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A fantastical creature that is part human and part bird: 1666, in the Duchess of Newcastle's Description of a New World.^[1][5] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the sense of a person who deals with birds to 1694,^[6] the Collegiate to 1697,^[7] and Dictionary.com places the word in 1690–1700.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In its first use the word named an imaginary hybrid creature, but from 1899 also the bird-man figures of totemic and religious art, such as the chief chosen each year by a contest on Rapa Nui.^[1] From 1686 it meant a man who hunts or catches wild birds, later also one who keeps and breeds them;^[1] Johnson (1755) defined it as a birdcatcher or fowler, quoting L'Estrange.^[4] In the early days of flying it became a colloquial word for the pilot of an aircraft, from 1908 in the OED^[1][5] and 1909 in Etymonline, which calls it slang;^[2] the OED notes that this use is now often historical.^[1] Collins calls the aviator sense obsolete.^[8] From 1930 a birdman was also a person who flies or glides with a personal device such as a hang glider or wingsuit,^[1][5] while from 1955 it was colloquially an ornithologist or birdwatcher.^[1] In British prison slang a birdman is a prisoner.^[9]

Timeline

• 1666 – a fantastical creature, part human and part bird.^[1]
• 1686 – a man who hunts or catches wild birds, later one who keeps and breeds them.^[1] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the sense to 1694.^[6]
• 1899 – a totemic or religious figure imagined as part human and part bird.^[1]
• 1908 – the pilot of an aircraft, an aviator; later a military airman.^[1] Etymonline dates it to 1909.^[2]
• 1930 – a person who flies or glides with a hang glider, wingsuit or similar device.^[1]
• 1955 – an ornithologist or birdwatcher.^[1]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who works with or studies birds, such as a fowler, a bird breeder or an ornithologist: The old birdman kept forty canaries in his shed.^{[6][10][8][1]}
2. (informal) An aviator or airman.^[6][10][1]
3. A person who tries to fly by their own muscle power, or who glides with a device such as a hang glider or wingsuit.^[8][1]
4. A mythical creature that is part human and part bird, or a figure representing one.^[1][11]

Related words

• bird
• birder
• birdwatcher

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
5. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
10. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
11. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org