wren

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English wrenne,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English wrenna, also wrænna,^[5][6][7] and earlier, with the metathesis of the r, werna, wærna.^[8][5][6] It is a Germanic word of uncertain origin,^[9][8] obscurely related to Old High German wrendo, wrendilo or rentilo and Icelandic rindill.^{[5][7][10][8]} Holthausen adds Old Saxon wrendilo,^[11] and Wiktionary reconstructs Proto-Germanic *wrandijô.^[1] Weekley suggested a link with Rindr or Vrindr, one of the wives of Odin, noting that the bird's names in other languages are often royal, as Latin rēgulus and French roitelet.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

A wren: Barnhart finds the form werna before 800 and wrenna before 1100,^[8][13] and the OED cites the word from the Old English Corpus Glossary.^[5] In the Old English glossaries it translates Latin bird names such as parrax and bitorius.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its meaning since Old English;^[5] from 1638 it was used with qualifying words for different species, and in English the common wren is often called Jenny or Kitty Wren.^[5][9] European settlers applied the name to various small Australasian birds from 1848, and it is now used for many small brownish birds of the family Troglodytidae, mostly found in the Americas.^[5][14][10] The bird is prominent in English folklore,^[9] and a rhyme recorded by Liberman says that the robin and the wren are God's cock and hen.^[15] In Ireland, on St Stephen's Day, wren-boys carried a wren about, tied to a bush, and asked for money;^[16][17] Liberman thinks the rite is much older than the story that a wren betrayed the Irish to the Vikings.^[15] In US slang the word meant a young woman from 1920.^[5]

Timeline

• before 800 – werna, a wren.^[8]
• before 1100 – wrenna.^[8]
• 1638 – with qualifying words, for particular species.^[5]
• 1848 – various small Australian birds.^[5]
• 1920 – US slang, a young woman.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small brown songbird with a short, often upright tail, especially the common wren of Europe, Troglodytes troglodytes.^[10][2][18]
2. Any bird of the family Troglodytidae, most of them found in the Americas.^[10][2]
3. Any of various similar small birds that are not true wrens, such as the fairy wrens of Australia.^[2][5]
4. (US slang, dated) A young woman.^[5][19]

Word family

• antwren
• cactus wren
• sedge wren
• short-billed marsh wren
• house wren
• rock wren
• winter wren

Related words

• Wren

Usage notes

Wren, with a capital letter, is also a member of the Women's Royal Naval Service, an acronym of the service's name from 1918.^[5][10][18] The OED notes that the plural Wrens came first, helped by the name of the bird, and the singular was formed from it.^[5] In Irish English the word is also wran, used for the St Stephen's Day custom.^[17][16]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ Mayhew, A. L.; Skeat, Walter W. (1888), A Concise Dictionary of Middle English from A.D. 1150 to 1580, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
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 Liberman, Anatoly, The Oxford Etymologist (blog column), OUPblog, blog.oup.com, p. "The robin and the wren", 16 January 2019
16. ^ a b 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. ^ a b Dolan, Terence Patrick (2004), A Dictionary of Hiberno-English: The Irish Use of English, 2nd ed., Dublin: Gill & Macmillan
18. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
19. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com