chaffinch
/ˈt͡ʃæfɪnt͡ʃ/ noun
Forms chaffinches
- noun A small passerine bird, Fringilla coelebs, of the finch family, found throughout Europe and eastward to Iran and eastern Mediterranean coastlands.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English chaffynch, chaffynche, caffynche, equivalent to chaff + finch. However, more recently the first element has been argued to derive from the same root as Old English cæfed (“ornamented”) and cæfing (“hair-ornament”), thus meaning "ornamented finch, colourful finch".
Webster’s 1913
- noun A bird of Europe (Fringilla coelebs), having a variety of very sweet songs, and highly valued as a cage bird; --called also copper finch.
Etymology [Cf. Chiff-chaff.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “chaffinch”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details