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bunting

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Etymology and origin of the English word bunting

Pronunciation

  • /ˈbʌntɪŋ/[1]

bunting1 bird

Confidence
Unknown
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1300 probably before 1300, in a Middle English word list
Inherited from
Middle English bunting

Etymology

The word for the bird is inherited from Middle English bunting, also bounting,[2][3] of unknown origin.[3][4][5][6][7][8] It was also a surname in Middle English.[2][9] Skeat compared Scots buntin (“short and thick, plump”) and Welsh bontin (“rump”), bontinog (“large-buttocked”),[3][5] and Barnhart, Hoad and Ayto suggest that the bird was named from an adjective meaning plump or short and thick.[10][8][11] Etymonline also mentions a double diminutive of French bon (“good”),[5] and Weekley traces the Middle English female name “Bontyng” to an earlier “Bunetun” (1273), from the French surname type “Bonneton”, perhaps used as a pet name for the bird, like robin.[9] Another guess names the bird from its speckled plumage, through an unrecorded Old English word related to Middle High German bunt (“spotted, speckled”), Middle Low German bunt, German bunt, Middle Dutch bont and Dutch bont,[10][5] which Etymonline takes as perhaps from Latin punctus (“a point”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The corn bunting: probably before 1300, in a Middle English word list,[2][12] and before 1350 in one of the Harley lyrics ("Ich wolde ich were a þrestelcok, a bountyng, oþer a lauercok").[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English glossaries the word renders Latin pratellus, and the Promptorium Parvulorum (1440) has "Buntynge, byrde".[2] Shakespeare's line "I took this lark for a bunting", from All's Well that Ends Well, is Johnson's quotation for the bird (1755).[13] From 1831 American ornithologists extended the name to other birds of the subfamily and to similar birds of other families,[3] so that Merriam-Webster now lists stout-billed birds grouped with the cardinals and the New World sparrows, such as the indigo bunting.[14] In dialect the name was used for other creatures: in Berkshire for the woodlark, and in Kent, from 1836, for the grey shrimp.[15][3]

Timeline

  • before 1300 – the corn bunting.[2][12] The OED's first record is a Harley lyric of before 1350.[3]
  • 1831 – in American use, other birds of the bunting subfamily and similar birds.[3]
  • 1836 – the grey shrimp, in Kent dialect.[3][15]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Any of various stout-billed, seed-eating songbirds related to the finches, such as the reed bunting and the snow bunting.[16][17][18]
  2. In North America, any of several similar birds of other families, such as the indigo bunting.[14][3]
  3. (dialect) The grey shrimp.[3][4][15]

Word family

  • lark bunting
  • reed bunting
  • snow bunting
  • indigo bunting

bunting2 flag cloth

Confidence
Uncertain
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1742 a Navy Board letter
Ultimate origin
Latin bonus

Etymology

The word for the flag cloth is of uncertain origin.[3][5][12][8][4][18] It is perhaps formed from English bunt (“to sift”) + -ing, the cloth having perhaps been used for sifting meal or flour;[16][10][5][8][6][11][9] the dialect verb goes back to Middle English bonten (“to sift”), recorded in the “Ayenbite of Inwyt” (1340),[10][2] and Etymonline traces it through Old French to Vulgar Latin *bonitō (“to make good”), from bonus (“good”).[5] The OED notes that French étamine means both a sifting cloth and bunting, which supports this, although there is no evidence that bunting was ever used for sifting;[3][9] a fact mentioned in an 1836 quotation would rather suggest a connection with German bunt and Dutch bont (“parti-coloured”).[3] The American Heritage Dictionary also suggests the German word.[19] Hoad notes an 18th-century variant buntine.[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A loosely woven fabric used for flags: 1742, in a letter of the Navy Board.[3][12][5] Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1711.[14][16]

Semantic evolution

From the cloth the word passed to the flags made of it, flags collectively, especially a ship's,[3][18][20] and to festive decorations of flags, streamers and strips of cloth, often in the national colours; the OED notes that the collective sense is now the more usual one.[3][17][16]

Timeline

  • 1742 – a loosely woven fabric for making flags.[3][12][5] Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1711.[14][16]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A light, loosely woven cotton or woollen fabric used for flags and decorations.[17][16][18]
  2. Flags collectively, especially a ship's flags.[17][18][14]
  3. Festive decorations of flags, pennants and streamers, often in the national colours: Bunting hung across the high street for the jubilee.[17][16][18]

Usage notes

Bunting is also a term of endearment, in the nursery rhyme "Bye, baby bunting",[4][16] recorded from before 1668 by the OED, which suggests the Scots sense "plump";[3] the Shorter Oxford dates it to the mid-16th century.[4] In North America it also names a hooded sleeping bag or outdoor garment for infants, from 1914 in the OED and 1922 in Merriam-Webster,[3][16] which takes it from the rhyme, perhaps as an alteration of bunny.[16] Weekley notes that in the play Respublica (1553) Avarice calls his plump purses his buntings.[9]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b c d e f Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  10. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  11. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  12. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  14. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  15. ^ a b c Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  16. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  17. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  18. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  19. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  20. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
Cite this entry

“Bunting.” Etymologically, 8 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/bunting. Accessed 9 Nov. 2026.

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