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Etymology and origin of the English word starling

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈstɑːlɪŋ/[1]
  • US: /ˈstɑɹlɪŋ/[1]

starling1 bird

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
Latin–Old English glossary (MS Harley 107)
Inherited from
Old English stærlinc via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Proto-Germanic *staraz

Etymology

The word for the bird is inherited from Middle English starling, also sterling,[2][3] inherited from Old English stærlinc, also stærling,[4][5][6][2][3] formed from stær (“starling”) and the diminutive suffix -ling.[4][6][7][8] The OED notes the name Starlingus or Starlinc in 1086 and the surname Starling in 1166.[7][3] Stær is from Proto-Germanic *staraz,[4][3][8][9] also the source of Old Norse stari, Old High German stara and German Star,[4][3][10] and is related to stearn, a kind of bird, probably the tern.[4][2][11] It is cognate with Latin sturnus (“starling”) and Old Prussian starnite (“gull”),[3][4][11] from Proto-Indo-European *storo- (“starling”) in Etymonline's notation;[4] Kroonen reconstructs *h₂stor-on-.[10] The Latin word is the source, through a diminutive, of French étourneau.[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The bird: in a Latin–Old English glossary (MS Harley 107), where stærlinc glosses Latin sturnus.[7][5] Barnhart dates the Old English word to before 1050 and the Middle English sterling to before 1325.[3]

Semantic evolution

The older Old English name was simply stær, which survived in Middle English and in dialect as stare beside the diminutive.[5][12] In Shakespeare's Henry IV a character plans to have a starling taught to speak nothing but "Mortimer", a line Johnson (1755) quoted for "a small singing bird".[13] The name was extended to related Old World birds (1678, in Ray's translation of Willughby) and to the unrelated American blackbirds of the family Icteridae (1674, in Josselyn).[7] In 17th-century cant brother starling was a man who shared a mistress with another (1675–1737),[7] and in Australian slang of the early 20th century a starling was a young woman, especially a chorus girl.[14] In Kent, Starling Sunday was the first Sunday of the year when young starlings could be heard under the eaves.[15]

Timeline

  • before 1050 – Old English stærling, the starling.[3][5]
  • before 1325 – Middle English sterling.[3]
  • 1674 – an American bird of the family Icteridae.[7]
  • 1675 – in cant, brother starling, a man sharing a mistress (obsolete by 1737).[7]
  • 1678 – any of various other birds of the starling family.[7]
  • 1867 – a variety of domestic pigeon.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A common gregarious songbird (Sturnus vulgaris), native to Eurasia, with dark glossy plumage speckled with white: A flock of starlings wheeled over the pier.[16][2][7]
  2. Any bird of the family Sturnidae, to which it belongs.[16][2][7]

starling2 pier protection

Confidence
Probable
First attested
c. 1684
Ultimate origin
Old English staþol

Etymology

The word for the piles around a bridge pier is apparently from English an altered form of staddling,[7][2][17][18][16][12] although the OED finds the change hard to explain and allows that another, unidentified word may have influenced it; a form steerling may have been reshaped after the verb steer.[7] Staddling, itself used of the pier of a bridge in 1461–82,[7] goes back to Middle English stadelinge,[2][19][12] formed from an assumed Middle English *stadel, a foundation or support, an alteration of stathel,[2] from Old English staþol (“foundation”).[19] The American Heritage Dictionary refers it to the root Proto-Indo-European *stā-.[19]

Earliest recorded meaning

A structure of piles built around the pier of a bridge to protect it from the current and floating objects: about 1684, in a ballad on the great frost of 1683–84.[7] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1675–85.[20]

Semantic evolution

Weekley quotes the earlier form from a record of 1482: "stadelinges and ground workys of the same brigge".[12] The modern dictionaries describe a starling as an outwork of piles, often filled with stones or gravel, that breaks the force of water, ice or drift against a pier.[2][17][16]

Timeline

  • c. 1684 – a protective structure of piles around a bridge pier.[7][20]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A pointed or rounded structure of piles driven around the pier of a bridge, often filled with stones, to protect it against the force of the water and floating objects.[2][16][17][7]
  • tern
  • staddle

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  9. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  10. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  11. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  12. ^ a b c d e Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  14. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  15. ^ 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. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  17. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  18. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  19. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  20. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House

Related etymologies

  • twist · also from Old English
  • folk · also from Old English
  • fever · also from Old English
  • climb · also from Old English
  • leaf · also from Old English
  • bin · also from Old English
  • baker · also from Old English
  • palm · also from Old English
Cite this entry

“Starling.” Etymologically, 8 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/starling. Accessed 9 Nov. 2026.

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