parrot

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[2][3] It is perhaps borrowed from Middle French Perrot, a variant of Pierrot, a pet form of the man's name French Pierre (“Peter”),^{[2][4][5][6][7][8]} in line with the habit of giving pet birds human names.^[9][2] The OED points out that French Perrot is not recorded for the bird before 1752, when it is probably a shortening of perroquet, and that the name Perrot itself is not recorded in 16th-century English, though the surname “le Perot” appears in 1277.^[2] It compares pierrot (“house sparrow”) (1694) and Occitan names for small birds.^[2][7] Merriam-Webster and Collins instead derive parrot from perroquet or paroquet,^[10][11] the source of parakeet, and Etymonline allows both explanations.^[3] Another proposal, Spanish pajarote (“large bird”), is recorded later than the English word and is formally and semantically difficult.^[2] Skeat took the French name back to Latin Petrus (“Peter”).^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The bird: before 1529, in John Skelton's poem Speke Parrot, where Parrot is also partly the bird's own name.^[2][13] Barnhart dates it to about 1525,^[4] Merriam-Webster to about 1525,^[10] Etymonline to the 1520s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Parrot replaced the older English name for the bird, popinjay, in the early 16th century.^{[14][3][13][9]} Since the bird can copy human speech, the word was soon used of a person who repeats others' words or ideas without understanding them (1546).^[2][11] The verb followed in 1596, in Nashe, meaning to chatter like a parrot;^[2][4][10] the sense of repeating words or ideas mechanically follows in 1640,^[2] from 1775 to 1890 it could also mean to teach someone by rote.^[2] A figure of a parrot set up as a target for shooting is recorded from 1578.^[2] The name was later extended to other birds and plants: the sea parrot or puffin (1664)^[2][15] and the parrot tulip (about 1786).^[2] The bird's pet names Poll (1600) and Polly (early 19th century) are a parallel to the proposed origin.^[9] In Australian slang a parrot was a flask of whisky (1912).^[16]

Timeline

• c. 1525 – the bird.^[4][10]
• before 1529 – Skelton's Speke Parrot.^[2]
• 1546 – a person who repeats others' words mindlessly.^[2]
• 1578 – a figure of a parrot used as a target.^[2]
• 1596 – verb, to chatter like a parrot.^[2][10][4]
• 1640 – verb, to repeat words or ideas mechanically.^[2]
• 1664 – sea parrot, the puffin.^[2]
• c. 1786 – parrot tulip.^[2]
• 1834 – the flesh of the parrot as food.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any of many tropical and subtropical birds of the order Psittaciformes, with a short hooked bill, bright plumage and often an ability to mimic human speech.^[11][10][2]
2. A person who repeats the words or actions of others without understanding them.^[11][10][2]
3. sick as a parrot: (British, usually humorous) very disappointed.^[11]

Verb

1. To repeat words or ideas mechanically, without understanding: The students parroted the slogans they had heard on television.^[11][10][2]
2. To chatter like a parrot; to talk on and on.^[10][2]

Word family

• parroter
• parrotlike
• parroty
• parrotfish
• amazon parrot
• parrot fever
• poll parrot

Related words

• parakeet
• popinjay
• Pierrot
• Peter

Usage notes

A separate parrot or parrot coal, of unknown origin, is a Scottish and northern word for cannel coal, recorded from 1594.^[2][15] Wright's English Dialect Dictionary records local names such as parrot-beak for the puffin and parrot-billed willock for the razorbill.^[15]

References

1. ^ 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 w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
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. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com