wheatear
Appearance
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Etymology 1
[edit]Uncertain. Probably a back-formation from Middle English whit ers (“white arse”), after the prominent white rump of many species. Compare dialect forms white rump, white-tail. Possibly a compound of wheat + ear or white + ear. Attested since the seventeenth century as wheat-ears or wheatgear.
Noun
[edit]wheatear (plural wheatears)
- Any of various passerine birds of the genus Oenanthe that feed on insects,
- 1669, Edward Chamberlayne, Angliae Notitia; or, The Present State of England, London: T.N. for John Martyn, →OCLC, page 6:
- What abundance of Hens, Ducks, Geese, Turkeys, Pigeons, and Larks? [...] Maychit, Stint, Sea-Plover, Pewits, Redshanks, Rayles, and Wheat-ears, Herrons, Cranes, Bitterns, Bustards, Puffins, God-wits,
- 1796, Tobias Smollett, The miscellaneous works of Tobias Smollett, M.D. With memoirs of his life and writings, Edinburgh: J. Mundell, →OCLC, page 21:
- great plenty of the birds so much admired at Tunbridge under the name of wheat-ears. By-the-bye, this is a pleasant corruption of white-a—se, the translation of the French name cul blanc, taken from their color; for they are actually white towards the tail.
- especially, the northern wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe)
Synonyms
[edit]Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]birds of genus Oenanthe
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References
[edit]- Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.
- “wheatear”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
Etymology 2
[edit]From Middle English whete-ere, equivalent to wheat + ear.
Noun
[edit]wheatear (plural wheatears)
Anagrams
[edit]Categories:
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with unknown etymologies
- English back-formations
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English compound terms
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- en:Muscicapids