magpie

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈmæɡˌpaɪ/^[1]

Etymology

A compound of Mag, a nickname for Margaret, and pie “magpie”.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Pie is borrowed from Old French pie, from Latin pīca (“magpie”).^[4] The nickname Mag was long used in proverbial expressions about idle chatter, as in Middle English magge tales “tall tales, nonsense”.^[3][4] Compare French margot (“magpie”), from Margot, a pet form of Marguerite.^[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The common black-and-white European bird of the crow family (1605 in the OED and Barnhart; 1598 in Merriam-Webster).^[7][3][5] Before that the bird was called simply pie (mid-13th century).^[4]

Semantic evolution

Since the bird is noisy, the word was applied to an idle chatterer (1632).^[7] Magpies are proverbial for pilfering and hoarding,^[4] which led to the sense of a person who collects things indiscriminately^[5][6] and to the adjective use “collected indiscriminately, miscellaneous” (1796).^[5] The name was also given to other birds that look like the magpie, such as the Australian black-and-white crow-shrike (1859).^[7]

Timeline

• mid-13th century – the bird called pie.^[4]
• 1598 – Merriam-Webster's date for magpie.^[5]
• 1605 – the European magpie (OED, Barnhart).^[7][3]
• 1632 – an idle chatterer.^[7]
• 1796 – adjective, miscellaneous, collected indiscriminately.^[5]
• 1859 – an Australian black-and-white bird.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Any of various birds of the crow family, especially Pica pica, with a long graduated tail, black-and-white plumage and a noisy chattering call.
2. Any of various similar birds, such as the black-and-white Australian magpie.
3. A person who chatters noisily; a chatterbox.
4. A person who collects or hoards things indiscriminately.

Adjective

1. Collected indiscriminately; miscellaneous; also, given to indiscriminate collecting.

Related words

• pie
• pica
• jay
• jackdaw

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press