blackbird

Etymology

It is from English black + bird,^[2][3][4][5] in Middle English blakbrid, from blak and brid.^[6][7] Dictionary.com notes an earlier spelling “blacke bride”.^[8] Etymonline, following the OED, explains the name by the bird being the only black one among the songbirds, in an older sense of bird that did not include rooks, crows or ravens.^[3] Etymonline counts a surname of the late 13th century as an early record,^[3] but the OED and Reaney and Wilson take the surname Blackbird (William Blakebird, 1279) as "black beard", with beard as the second part, as the spellings “Blachebiert” (1066) and “Blakeberd” (1275) show.^[2][9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The common Eurasian thrush whose male is black: about 1350, in the Nominale.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to the late 15th century and Dictionary.com to 1480–90.^[3][8]

Semantic evolution

From 1602, in Brereton's account of Virginia, the name was given to New World birds of the family Icteridae, such as grackles;^[2][3] from 1678 to 1884 it was also used, with a distinguishing word, for various other birds with mostly black plumage.^[2] In British regional use it named the ring ouzel from 1802.^[2] Johnson (1755) called it simply "the name of a bird", quoting Carew's Survey of Cornwall for the singing birds of the county.^[5] In 19th-century slang, originally nautical, a blackbird was a captive African taken as a slave: Green's Dictionary of Slang has it from 1832, the OED from 1853.^[11][2] From 1875 it was used for labourers recruited in the south Pacific for the sugar plantations,^[2] and Morris quotes black-bird catching from a narrative of the brig Carl in 1871.^[12] The verb followed the noun blackbirding: to engage in the slave trade (1845), then to kidnap people for work as indentured labourers (1889),^[2] which Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates to 1873.^[6] In Australian history the word was also used of an Aboriginal person, especially in the phrase blackbird shooting.^[13]

Timeline

• c. 1350 – the Eurasian thrush Turdus merula.^[2]
• 1602 – a New World bird of the family Icteridae.^[2]
• before 1640 – figuratively, a songster (obsolete).^[2]
• 1678 – with a distinguishing word, other birds with mostly black plumage (obsolete by 1884).^[2]
• 1802 – with a distinguishing word, the ring ouzel.^[2]
• 1832 – a captive African taken as a slave.^[11] The OED's first record is from 1853.^[2]
• 1845 – verb, to engage in the slave trade.^[2]
• 1875 – a labourer recruited in the south Pacific for the sugar plantations.^[2]
• 1889 – verb, to kidnap people for work as indentured labourers.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates this sense to 1873.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A common European thrush, Turdus merula, the male of which has black plumage and a yellow or orange bill, and the female brown.^[14][6][2]
2. Any of various American birds of the family Icteridae with mostly black plumage, such as the grackles.^[14][6][2]
3. (historical) A person, especially a Pacific Islander, kidnapped and sold as a slave or indentured labourer.^[14][2][13]

Verb

1. (historical) To kidnap people, especially Pacific Islanders, for sale or use as labourers; usually as blackbirding.^[6][2]

Word family

• blackbirder
• blackbirding
• Brewer's blackbird
• red-winged blackbird
• rusty blackbird
• yellow-headed blackbird

Related words

• black
• bird

Usage notes

The Dictionary of American Regional English recorded blackbird as a term for a Black person, chiefly in South Carolina, in its survey of 1965–70.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ 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.
6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
8. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ Reaney, P. H.; Wilson, R. M. (1991), A Dictionary of English Surnames, 3rd ed., London: Routledge
10. ^ Hanks, Patrick; Coates, Richard; McClure, Peter, eds. (2016), The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
12. ^ Morris, Edward E. (1898), Austral English: A Dictionary of Australasian Words, Phrases and Usages, London: Macmillan
13. ^ a b Moore, Bruce, ed. (2004), The Australian Oxford Dictionary, 2nd ed., Melbourne: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan Houston Hall (eds.) (1985–2002), Dictionary of American Regional English, vols I–IV, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press