chirp

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English chirpen,^[2][3][4] of imitative origin.^{[4][5][6][7][8]} The OED sees it as an imitative change of the earlier chirk and chirt, since a final -p better suggests the movement of a bird's bill; it compares cheep and peep, and German zirpen as a parallel imitative word.^[9][10] Barnhart and Etymonline take it as perhaps a variant of chirken (“to creak, crackle, chirp”),^[11][12] which the Middle English Dictionary derives from Old English cearcian (“to creak”) with imitative variants.^[13][11] Dictionary.com calls it an expressive word akin to cheep and chirk.^[14] Johnson thought it perhaps contracted from the phrase “cheer up”.^[15]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make the short sharp sound of a small bird or insect: the verbal noun cyrpinge or chyrpyinge in the Promptorium Parvulorum, about 1440.^[9][11] Barnhart's first date for the finite verb is 1566,^[11] and Merriam-Webster gives 1557.^[5]

Semantic evolution

From birds and insects the verb passed to people: from 1575, to make a similar sound, especially a sucking noise with the lips by way of encouragement.^[9] From the early 17th century it also meant to speak in a way compared to birdsong, at first feebly and faintly (1604), then in lively, cheerful tones (1648).^[9] Johnson (1755) defined it as a cheerful noise made by birds that call without singing, and the merry chirping pint or bottle he quotes shows a mid-16th-century use of chirping for "lively, cheering".^[15][6] Weekley thought that the feeling of being chirpy was coloured by the phrase “cheer up”.^[16] In slang, chirp meant to talk (1827) and to inform (about 1838),^[17] and as a noun, an act of informing (1831), meaningless chatter (1914) and a female singer (1944).^[17] In Yorkshire and Lincolnshire dialect it meant to answer a superior impertinently.^[18] The dictionaries differ on the noun: the OED first finds it in Southey's Thalaba (1801), Barnhart and Etymonline say 1802,^[9][11][12] while Merriam-Webster has about 1586, and Johnson already quoted it from the Spectator.^[5][15]

Timeline

• c. 1440 – verbal noun, the short sharp sound of a bird or insect.^[9][11]
• 1575 – to make a similar sound, especially with the lips.^[9]
• 1604 – to speak feebly and faintly.^[9]
• 1614 – transitive, to utter by chirping.^[9]
• 1648 – to talk in lively tones.^[9]
• 1801 – noun, the sound itself.^[9] Merriam-Webster dates it to about 1586.^[5]
• 1827 – slang, to talk.^[17]
• 1832 – to greet or urge on by chirping.^[9]
• 1944 – slang noun, a female singer.^[17]

Meanings

Verb

1. Of small birds and insects such as crickets, to make a short, sharp, high sound: Sparrows chirped under the eaves all morning.^[5][8][9]
2. To make a sound that imitates or resembles this, especially with the lips as encouragement.^[5][9]
3. To say something, or to talk, in a lively and cheerful way.^[5][8][9]
4. chirp up (US): to cheer up.^[9][6]
5. (slang) To inform on someone.^[17]

Noun

1. A short, sharp note of a small bird or an insect; a chirrup.^[5][8][9]
2. A sound imitating or resembling this.^[5][9]
3. (US slang) A female singer.^[17]

Word family

• chirper
• chirpingly
• chirpy

Related words

• chirrup
• chirk
• cheep
• chirr

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
12. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
13. ^ 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)
14. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
15. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
17. ^ a b c d e f Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
18. ^ 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)