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lintwhite (LINT-hwayt) - n., the linnet.
Being a small Old World finch (Acanthis cannabina) with a brownish body and (on the male) a red breast -- also, any of a couple New World finches, such as the house finch, with a vaguely similar appearance. The lint- part has the same root as linnet, namely Old English/Germanic lin, flax, from its fondness for eating flax-seeds. For linnet, it acquired a diminutive form as it passed through French. For lintwhite, it started as Old English līnetwige, literally flax trouble-maker/fighter and got altered by Middle English into a form that made it sound like the name was about its color.
---L.
Being a small Old World finch (Acanthis cannabina) with a brownish body and (on the male) a red breast -- also, any of a couple New World finches, such as the house finch, with a vaguely similar appearance. The lint- part has the same root as linnet, namely Old English/Germanic lin, flax, from its fondness for eating flax-seeds. For linnet, it acquired a diminutive form as it passed through French. For lintwhite, it started as Old English līnetwige, literally flax trouble-maker/fighter and got altered by Middle English into a form that made it sound like the name was about its color.
---L.
