ebb

en-verb

ebb (third-person singular simple present ebbs, present participle ebbing, simple past and past participle ebbed)

ebbs (present singular third-person)
ebbing (participle present)
ebbed (participle past)
ebbed (past)

From Middle English ebben, from Old English ebbian, from Proto-West Germanic *abbjōn (“to ebb”).

(intransitive) to fish with stakes and nets that serve to prevent the fish from getting back into the sea with the ebb


snowflake

snowflake (third-person singular simple present snowflakes, present participle snowflaking, simple past and past participle snowflaked)

snowflakes (present singular third-person)
snowflaking (participle present)
snowflaked (participle past)
snowflaked (past)

From snow + flake. Compare Saterland Frisian Sneeflokke (“snowflake”), Dutch sneeuwvlok, Luxembourgish Schnéiflack, German Schneeflocke.

cog

(computing, databases) To arrange (data) into a snowflake schema.


redhead

I like redheads. Their mouths are like a drop of strawberry jam in a glass of milk.

2007, Matthew Weiner, “Red in the Face”, in Mad Men, season 1, episode 7, spoken by Roger Sterling:


junco

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-junco.wav

Borrowed from Spanish junco (“reed, rush”), from Latin iuncus (“reed, rush”). Doublet of juncus and possibly junk.

Junco, the Reed-Sparrow; a Bird.

[1658, Edward Phillips, compiler, “Junco”, in The New World of English Words: Or, A General Dictionary: […], London: […] E. Tyler, for Nath[aniel] Brook […], →OCLC:

Arundinaceus. Brown-ferruginous; beneath whitiſh-teſtaceous; with tail-feathers banded and reddiſh at the apex. The junco of Geſner [i.e., Conrad Gessner], Aldrovand [i.e., Ulisse Aldrovandi], [John] Ray, and [Francis] Willughby.

1819, Abraham Rees, “TURDUS”, in The Cyclopædia; or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Literature. […], volume XXXVI, London: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown, […] [et al.], →OCLC, column 1:

Emberiza schoeniclus
Emberiza schoeniclus#Translingual

(obsolete) The common reed bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus), a bird found in Europe and much of the Palearctic.


bunting

en-noun

bunting (countable and uncountable, plural buntings)

(obsolete) An old boys' game, played with sticks and a small piece of wood.


yellowhammer

Alteration (influenced by hammer) of earlier yelambre, yelamber, from Middle English *yelwambre, from yelwe (“yellow”) + *ambre (“yellowhammer”), from Old English amore, related to Old High German amaro (“yellowhammer”) (see modern German Ammer).

Colaptes auratus
Colaptes auratus#Translingual

(US) The northern flicker, Colaptes auratus.


ortolan

From Middle French hortolan (“gardener”), from Latin hortulānus (“gardener”). Doublet of hortulan.

greater short-toed lark
greater short-toed lark

Calandrella brachydactyla
Calandrella brachydactyla#Translingual

The greater short-toed lark (Calandrella brachydactyla).


cirl bunting

Anglicized form of Latin name Emberiza cirlus, probably originally from Italian zirlare (“to whistle”).

A minute or two later, a female cirl bunting dropped down into the field in front of us, soon followed by a male.

2010 July 19, Stephen Moss, “Birdwatch”, in The Guardian:

Emberiza cirlus
Emberiza cirlus#Translingual

A small Old World passerine bird, Emberiza cirlus, of the bunting family (Emberizidae), very similar to the yellowhammer.


yelamber

From Middle English *yelwambre, from yelwe (“yellow”) + *ambre (“yellowhammer”), from Old English amore.


snow bunting

Soon the snow buntings will arrive, bringing song. My favourite snow bunting song is the clearance song they make to land.

2018, Tanya Tagaq, Split Tooth, And Other Stories (2023), page 117:

Plectrophenax nivalis
Plectrophenax nivalis#Translingual

A finch of species Plectrophenax nivalis, having white plumage, widely distributed in northern latitudes.


ammer

Inherited from Middle English *ambre, from Old English amore. Alternatively, it may be a clipping of yellowhammer or earlier yelambre. Favored over *hammer due to the influence of its German cognate and synonym Ammer (“bunting”) and its predecessors, Middle High German amer and Old High German amaro.

Emberiza citrinella
Emberiza citrinella#Translingual

The yellowhammer; yellow bunting; Emberiza citrinella.


corn bunting

Emberiza calandra
Emberiza calandra#Translingual

A passerine bird (Emberiza calandra, syn. Emberiza miliaria, Milaria calandra) whose male and female plumages are (untypically for buntings) similar.


reed bunting

A passerine bird, Emberiza schoeniclus, sparrow-sized but slim and with a long, deeply notched tail.


emberizid

Any member of the taxonomic family Emberizidae of passerine birds.


yowley

They're just as feerce as untyem'd goats, / An' all liked sowlgers dress'd; / They've a bunch ov hair upon their jaws / Just like a yowley's nest.

1863, Edward Corvan, A choice collection of Tyneside songs, page 56:

(dated, UK, dialect) The European yellowhammer.


yeldrin

Alteration of earlier yowlring, equivalent to yellow + ring.

Bless the bramble and its berries —nor can we conjecture why it should be “a maltreated shrub,” any more than why the “Yellow Yeldrin” should in Scotland—and we believe in England too—be a maltreated bird.

1834, “The moral of flowers”, in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, volume 35 (review of The Moral of Flowers by Rebecca Hey), page 811:

(archaic, dialect, UK, Scotland) The yellowhammer.


ringbird

From ring + bird, because of its collar of white feathers.


rustic bunting

Emberiza rustica
Emberiza rustica#Translingual

Emberiza rustica, a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae.


yoldring

But you heed me no more than a goss-hawk minds a yellow yoldring.

1820, [Walter Scott], chapter II, in The Abbot. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne & Co.] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Company, and John Ballantyne, […], →OCLC, page 43:

(British, dialectal, obsolete) A bird, the yellowhammer.


yeorling

I asked Thady a minute later what nests he knew of. "Galore," he answered, grinning. And then proceeded to enumerate them : " A lintie (a linnet), a green grosbeak (greenfinch), a Harry redcap (goldfinch), a yellow yeorling by the roadside, a scobby (chaffinch), a lavrock (skylark), a cushie-doo (a wood pigeon), a cutty wren (common wren), a nanny washtail (pied wagtail) in the rocks, and two tom-titers of sorts.

1905, Lady Catherine Henrietta Milnes Gaskell, Spring in a Shropshire Abbey, page 179:

The brock, the toad, and the yellow yeorling Get a drap o' the de'il's bluid ilka May morning.

1907, Country Life - Volume 21, page 376:

Then they listened to a yeorling and Will taught the child its song, "A little bit of bread and no che-e-ese.

1962, Henrietta Buckmaster, All the Living: A Novel of One Year in the Life of William Shakespeare, page 360:


writing master

The bird is so called because of the scribbly marks on its eggs.

A bird, the yellow bunting or yellowhammer, Emberiza citrinella.


grey-hooded bunting

grey-hooded bunting (plural grey-hooded buntings)

chestnut-eared bunting
chestnut-eared bunting#English


grey-headed bunting

grey-headed bunting (plural grey-headed buntings)


chestnut-eared bunting

chestnut-eared bunting (plural chestnut-eared buntings)

Emberiza fucata
Emberiza fucata#Translingual

Emberiza fucata, a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae.


Cretzschmar's bunting

Cretzschmar's bunting (plural Cretzschmar's buntings)

Emberiza caesia
Emberiza caesia#Translingual

Emberiza caesia, a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae.


pine bunting

Emberiza leucocephalos
Emberiza leucocephalos#Translingual

Emberiza leucocephalos, a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae.


Pallas's bunting

Pallas's bunting (plural Pallas's buntings)

Emberiza pallasi
Emberiza pallasi#Translingual

Emberiza pallasi, a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae.


ortolan bunting

ortolan bunting (plural ortolan buntings)

Emberiza hortulana
Emberiza hortulana#Translingual

Emberiza hortulana, a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae.


grey-necked bunting

grey-necked bunting (plural grey-necked buntings)

Emberiza buchanani
Emberiza buchanani#Translingual

Emberiza buchanani, a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae.


little bunting

Emberiza pusilla
Emberiza pusilla#Translingual

Emberiza pusilla, a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae.


yellow-browed bunting

yellow-browed bunting (plural yellow-browed buntings)

Emberiza chrysophrys
Emberiza chrysophrys#Translingual

Emberiza chrysophrys, a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae.


black-headed bunting

black-headed bunting (plural black-headed buntings)

Emberiza melanocephala
Emberiza melanocephala#Translingual

Emberiza melanocephala, a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae.


rock bunting

Emberiza cia, a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae.


black-faced bunting

black-faced bunting (plural black-faced buntings)

Emberiza spodocephala
Emberiza spodocephala#Translingual

Emberiza spodocephala, a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae.


yellow-breasted bunting

yellow-breasted bunting (plural yellow-breasted buntings)

Emberiza aureola
Emberiza aureola#Translingual

Emberiza aureola, a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae.


cinereous bunting

cinereous bunting (plural cinereous buntings)

Emberiza cineracea
Emberiza cineracea#Translingual

Emberiza cineracea, a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae.