widow bird
noun
Forms widow birds widowbird
- noun Any of several species of birds in the family Viduidae, incorporating whydahs and widow finches.
- noun Any of several species of birds in the genus Euplectes.
Synonyms
Etymology
Compound of widow + bird. The name for the family Viduidae derives from the genus name Vidua, from post-classical Latin vidua (“widow”) for males' black plumage, which resembles the mourning clothes of a widow. Compare whydah, from Whydah, a city in the Kingdom of Dahomey, now Ouidah, Benin. The terms widow-bird and whydah-bird influenced one another due to association of one species with the city.
Webster’s 1913
- See Whidan bird.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “widow bird”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details