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redstart (RED-stahrt) - n., any of several birds: a) the common restart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus), a Eurasian thrush; b) any of 13 other species of Eurasian thrushes of genus Phoenicurus; c) the American redstart (Setophaga ruticilla), a New World warbler.
Most of these are highly migratory, so the common restart breeds in Eurasia and winters in sub-Saharan Africa, and the American redstart breeds in Canada and the eastern US and winters in northern South America. What these birbs have in common is red or something reddish on their tails -- for start has an otherwise entirely obsolete meaning of tail, used in Middle English stert to also mean handle, from Old English steort, tail -- the connection being the PIE root ster-, with a root sense of stiff, connected to an original sense of start, to leap up, as to move stiffly. Here's the common redstart:
Thanks, WikiMedia!
And the American restart:
Thanks, WikiMedia!
---L.
Most of these are highly migratory, so the common restart breeds in Eurasia and winters in sub-Saharan Africa, and the American redstart breeds in Canada and the eastern US and winters in northern South America. What these birbs have in common is red or something reddish on their tails -- for start has an otherwise entirely obsolete meaning of tail, used in Middle English stert to also mean handle, from Old English steort, tail -- the connection being the PIE root ster-, with a root sense of stiff, connected to an original sense of start, to leap up, as to move stiffly. Here's the common redstart:
Thanks, WikiMedia!
And the American restart:
Thanks, WikiMedia!
---L.
