mavis

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English mavis, also mavys and mavice,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French mauvis, also Anglo-Norman mauviz and malviz,^[5][6][7][8] recorded in Old French from about 1165,^[5] of uncertain origin.^[5][6][7][9] Related forms are Spanish malvís, probably from French,^[5][3] Italian regional words such as malviccio,^[6] and Medieval Latin malvitius.^[5][10] The French etymological dictionary of von Wartburg, cited by the OED, derives it, like mouette (“seagull”) and Old French mave (“gull”), from a Germanic word related to mew the gull, though the change of sense is hard to explain;^[5] the American Heritage Dictionary and Dictionary.com also take it as probably from the word for the gull.^[11][12] The Breton form milfid is a loan from French.^[6][3] Skeat thought the word perhaps Celtic,^[13] and Weekley wondered about a link with Latin malva (“mallow”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The song thrush: before 1425, in Chaucer's Romaunt of the Rose, where the birds sing "The mavys and the nyghtyngale".^[2][5] Merriam-Webster dates the word to the 14th century,^[4] Dictionary.com to 1350–1400,^[12] and Etymonline to about 1400.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The word has always named the song thrush, perhaps also the mistle thrush in Middle English;^[2][4] in modern French mauvis is the redwing.^[5] Johnson (1755) already called it an old word, quoting Spenser's sonnet in which the cuckoo sings when the mavis does.^[14] It survived as a poetic word and in regional speech:^[5][15] the English Dialect Dictionary records it in Scotland, Ireland, northern England, East Anglia, Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire, with forms such as mavie and mavish.^[16][5] Weekley notes that poets often paired it with merle, the blackbird.^[10] In the United States it was used from 1865 for the brown thrasher.^[5][4] Etymonline notes its use as a woman's name.^[6]

Timeline

• before 1425 – the song thrush.^[5][2]
• 1865 – in the United States, the brown thrasher.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (poetic, dialect) The song thrush.^{[4][15][17][5]}
2. The mistle thrush.^[4]
3. (US, regional) The brown thrasher.^[4][5]

Related words

• mew

Usage notes

A different mavis, a kind of tobacco, of unknown origin, is recorded from 1641 to 1688.^[5]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ 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)
17. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins