From then on, although “fowl” was still used for larger birds such as members of the crow family, “bird” became the norm for all smaller birds, including the blackbird. Then, sometime around the time Chaucer was writing, this meaning began to shift. The word bird (originally the Anglo-Saxon brid), referred only to young fowls, or chicks. The reason for this apparent anomaly is that, until the late medieval period, birds were not called “birds” at all, but fowls – as in Chaucer’s poem The Parliament of Fowls. So why was just one species singled out as the “blackbird”? Photograph: Andi Edwards/Alamyīut what about the crow, rook, raven and jackdaw? All of these would have been very familiar to our ancestors, and all appear – at least from a distance – to be black in colour. The blackbird isn’t our only black bird, but the story of its name goes back to late medieval usage.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |