robin
pronunciation
How to pronounce robin in British English:
UK [ ˈrɒbɪn]
How to pronounce robin in American English:
US [ ˈrɑːbɪn]
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- Noun:
- small Old World songbird with a reddish breast
- large American thrush having a rust-red breast and abdomen
Word Origin
- robin
- robin: [15] Robin was borrowed from the French male first name Robin, a familiar form of Robert, which is first recorded as a bird-name in the 15th century. It originally appeared in English, in the mid-15th century, in the expression robin redbreast, and robin was not used on its own until about a hundred years later. Since then its has gradually ousted the native ruddock (a relative of red) as the standard term for the bird. (The name Robert, incidentally, is of Germanic origin, and means etymologically ‘famebright’.)
- robin (n.)
- common European songbird, 1540s, shortening of Robin Redbreast (mid-15c.), from masc. personal name Robin, also (in reference to the bird) in the diminutive form robinet. Redbreast alone for the bird is from early 15c., and the Robin might have been added for the alliteration. It ousted the native ruddock. In North America, the name was applied to the red-breasted thrush by 1703. Robin's egg as a shade of blue is attested from 1881.
- Robin
- masc. proper name, from Old French Robin, diminutive of Robert (q.v.). Robin Goodfellow "sportive elf of the English countryside," is first attested 1530s, popular 16-17c.; Robin Hood is at least from late 14c.
Example
- 1. A humble robin - still , its tail resides abroad
- 2. Genius is but a robin 's song at the beginning of a slow spring .
- 3. Of course to me it 's a robin that 's the " harbinger of spring . "
- 4. A robin sits on a wall near to a field of highland cows in denny , in scotland
- 5. As they were looking at the seed packets together , the robin hopped on to a branch near them.dickon listened carefully to the robin 's song .