Where does “magpie” come from?
Magpie is an English word derived from English Margaret, originally a personal name applied to the bird.
magpie (English): One of several kinds of bird in the family...
Definitions
- One of several kinds of bird in the family...
Ancestry of “magpie”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | PIE | A type of pastry that consists of an outer crust and a filling. (Savory pies are more popular in the UK and sweet pies are more popular in the US, so "pie" without qualification has different connotations in these dialects.) |
| 2 | Middle English | pie | Alternative form of pye |
| 3 | Old French | pié | foot |
| 4 | Latin | pēs | a foot, in its senses as |
| 5 | Ancient Greek | μέτρον | something used to measure: measure, rule, weight;... |
| 6 | Ancient Greek | -τρον | Forms instrument nouns |
| 7 | Proto-Hellenic | -tron | Forms instrument nouns from verb stems |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | -trom | Forms nouns denoting a tool or instrument |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | -tḗr | Derives agent nouns from verbs, denoting someone... |