finch
/fɪnt͡ʃ/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms finches finching finched
- noun Any Eurasian goldfinch (of species Carduelis carduelis, syn. Fringilla carduelis).
- noun Any bird of the family Fringillidae, seed-eating passerine birds, native chiefly to the Northern Hemisphere and usually having a conical beak.
- noun Any bird of other families of similar appearance to members of family Fringillidae.
- noun (UK, slang, dated) A woman.
- verb To hunt for finches, to go finching.
- proper noun A surname transferred from the nickname, from finch as a byname or for a catcher and seller of finches.
- proper noun A community and former township in North Stormont, United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry, Ontario, Canada.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English fynch, from Old English finċ, from Proto-West Germanic *finki, from Proto-Germanic *finkiz (compare Dutch vink, German Fink), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pingos (“chaffinch”). Compare Welsh pinc (“finch”), Ancient Greek σπίγγος (spíngos, “chaffinch”), Russian пе́нка (pénka, “wren”), Sanskrit फिङ्गक (phiṅgaka, “drongo, shrike”).
Webster’s 1913
Etymology [AS. finc; akin to D. vink, OHG. fincho, G. fink; cf. W. pinc a finch; also E. spink.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “finch”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details