robin

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈrɒb.ɪn/, US /ˈrɑː.bɪn/^[1]

Etymology

It is a shortening of Robin Redbreast (mid-15th century),^[2][3][4] from the personal name Robin, borrowed from Old French Robin, a diminutive of Robert.^[3][2][5] Word Origins compares the habit of giving birds names, as with Polly for a parrot.^[6] Liberman, while noting the consensus for the name, suggests that robin may be one of many animal names of the form r + vowel + b, with a diminutive suffix as in Dobbin.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The small European bird with a red breast: 1549 in Barnhart, the OED and Liberman, the 1540s in Etymonline.^[3][8][7][2] Robin Redbreast is from about 1450,^[3] and both names were at first Scots.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Redbreast alone is from the early 15th century, and Robin may have been added for the alliteration;^[2] an earlier Middle English name was robynet (before 1425).^[3] Robin ousted the native name ruddock.^[2] In North America the name was applied by 1703 to a red-breasted thrush,^[2][8] and in former colonies, such as New Zealand and Australia, to various other birds.^[8] Robin's egg blue, a greenish blue, is from 1881 and refers to the North American bird; the English robin's eggs are freckled pinkish-white.^[2] Robin Hood is named from at least the late 14th century and Robin Goodfellow, a domestic elf, by the late 15th.^[2] In round robin (18th century) the reference of the noun is unknown.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1450 – Robin Redbreast.^[3]
• 1549 – robin, the bird.^[3][8]
• 1703 – the American robin.^[2][8]
• 1881 – robin's egg blue.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A small Old World songbird with a brown back and orange-red breast.
2. A large North American thrush with a reddish breast.
3. Any of various birds that look like a robin.

Word family

• wake-robin
• ragged robin
• round robin
• sea robin
• robin redbreast

Related words

• Robert
• Robin Hood
• ruddock
• redbreast

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Liberman, Anatoly (2008), An Analytic Dictionary of English Etymology: An Introduction, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press
8. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press