mésange

French

Etymology

From Middle French mésange, from Old French mesenge, masenge (“titmouse”), from Frankish *meisinga (“titmouse”), from Proto-Germanic *maisǭ (“titmouse”), *-ingō (“-ing”). Cognate with Old High German meisa (“titmouse”), Old English māse (“small bird”), Middle Dutch mese (“titmouse”). More at titmouse.

Pronunciation

• Audio

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Noun

mésange f (plural mésanges)

1. tit, chickadee, titmouse (any of a large number of small tree-dwelling passerine birds)

Anagrams

• engames, gênâmes, magnées, manèges, mangées, ménages, ménagés

Further reading

• “mésange” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).