Etymologically
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parrot

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈpæɹət/[1]

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

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