GC: n
S: Rspb – https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/magpie (last access: 10 November 2024); WildlifeT – https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/birds/crows-and-shrikes/magpie (last access: 10 November 2024).
N: 1. Popular name of a common bird of Europe, Asia, and America, known for its chattering, acquisitiveness, curiosity, and mimicry, c. 1600, earlier simply pie (mid-13c.).
- The first element is Mag, nickname for Margaret, long used in proverbial and slang English for qualities associated generally with women, especially in this case “idle chattering” (as in Magge tales “tall tales, nonsense,” early 15c.; also compare French margot “magpie,” from Margot, pet form of Marguerite). The name Margaret, and its reduced forms Mag, Madge, diminutive Maggie, also has long been familiarly applied to birds. Pies were proverbial since Middle English for chattering (as were jays), hence the application of pie to a prattling gossip or tattler, also “sly person, informer” (late 14c.) and in 15c.-16c. a wily pie (or wyly pye) was “a cunning person.”
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The second element, pie, is the earlier name of the bird, from Old French pie, from Latin pica “magpie” (source also of Spanish pega), fem. of picus “woodpecker,” from PIE root *(s)peik- “woodpecker, magpie” (source also of Umbrian peica “magpie,” Sanskrit pikah “Indian cuckoo,” Old Norse spætr, German Specht “woodpecker”); possibly from PIE root *pi-, denoting pointedness, of the beak. The application to pies might be because the magpie also has a long, pointed tail.
2. magpie, any of several long-tailed birds belonging to the family Corvidae (order Passeriformes). The best-known species are the black-billed magpie (Pica hudsonia), a 45-cm (18-inch) black-and-white (i.e., pied) bird, with an iridescent blue-green tail, and the Eurasian magpie (P. pica), which is has similar coloration, but is slightly larger in size with a shorter tail. The geographic range of the black-billed magpie extends across large parts of North America from Alaska’s Aleutian Islands south and east to the Pacific Northwest and the Great Plains of the United States. In contrast, the Eurasian magpie occurs in northwestern Africaand across Eurasia to China, and the Korean and Kamchatka Peninsulas. A bird of farmlands and tree-studded open country, it eats insects, seeds, small vertebrates, the eggs and young of other birds, and fresh carrion. It makes a large round nest of twigs cemented with mud.
Brilliant blue or green magpies in Asia include those of the genera Cyanopica, Cissa, and Urocissa. For Australasian magpies, see bell-magpie.
3. Birds: magpie, Eurasian magpie, black-billed magpie.
- Latin: Pica pica.
- A bird of the family Corvidae.
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According to some authors, all elements of names of bird species require capital letters except for hyphenated adjectives where the second word is not capitalized, for example, Black-crowned Night Heron.
4. Cultural Interrelation: We can mention Magpie (2022) by Elizabeth Day.
S: 1. Etymonline – https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=magpie (last access: 10 November 2024). 2. EncBrit – https://www.britannica.com/animal/magpie (last access: 10 November 2024). 3. TERMIUM PLUS – https://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/tpv2alpha/alpha-eng.html?lang=eng&i=1&srchtxt=magpie&index=alt&codom2nd_wet=1#resultrecs (last access: 10 November 2024). 4. GR – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59366252-magpie (last access: 10 November 2024).
SYN: black-billed magpie, Eurasian magpie. (depending on context)
S: TERMIUM PLUS – https://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/tpv2alpha/alpha-eng.html?lang=eng&i=1&srchtxt=magpie&index=alt&codom2nd_wet=1#resultrecs (last access: 10 November 2024); GDT – https://vitrinelinguistique.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca/fiche-gdt/fiche/9473240/pie-bavarde (last access: 10 November 2024).
