2014-01-21

prettygoodword: text: words are sexy (words are sexy)
2014-01-21 07:22 am

fieldfare

fieldfare (FEELD-fair) - n., a Eurasian thrush, Turdus pilaris, having reddish-brown plumage with an ashy head and a dark tail.


And not the food eaten while camping. Attested to at least 1100 as feldefare, and posited as present in Old English as either *feldeware, literally field-dweller, or feldefare, which in modern spelling would be field-farer, literally field-goer (though one dictionary also posits a connection to fara, companion). Either root sense makes sense, given its habitat at the edge of woodlands.

---L.