chickadee

Etymology

Apparent onomatopoeia from these birds' calls making a distinctive “chick-a-dee-dee-dee” sound.

noun

  1. A small passerine bird (songbird) of the genus Parus or the family Paridae.
    In Walden wood the chickadee / Runs round the pine and maple tree 1904, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “//dummy.host/index.php?title=s%3Aen%3APoems+%28Emerson%2C+Household+Edition%2C+1904%29%2FFragments+on+Nature+and+Life Fragments on Nature and Life”, in Poems
  2. Affectionate term of address.

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