Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!think.com!mintaka!bloom-beacon!eru!hagbard!sunic!mcsun!ukc!educ-isis!teexmmo From: teexmmo@ioe.lon.ac.uk (Matthew Moore) Newsgroups: rec.birds Subject: Re: "Titmouse" (Was Re: Contact Notes of Winter Birds in Seattle) Message-ID: <1990Dec6.151906.24789@ioe.lon.ac.uk> Date: 6 Dec 90 15:19:06 GMT Reply-To: teexmmo@ioe.lon.ac.uk (Matthew Moore) Organization: Institute of Education University of London Lines: 31 In article rmura@world.std.com (Ron Mura) writes: > >> >> Not to flame, but that's the oldest one in the birder's joke book. (At least, >> the implied pun is). And yes, chickadees are called tits in Europe. I believe >> it comes from Old English 'titr', which means small (BTW, 'titmouse' im America >> comes from 'titr mase' which means small bird). >> > > >If anyone is interested, I asked my sister, a scholar of Medieval >English, on the origin of the word "titmouse" and this is what she had >to say: > > I did some detective work on the origins of the word titmouse. >Tit(r) is not an Old English word. It does occur as tittr in Icelandic. >It is believed to be of onomatopeic origin as a term for a small animal or >object. OE mase is the second element in a number of compounds, the most >common of which is titmase=titmouse. It also is combined with col-, cum-, >spic-, etc... The element mase (and in Middle English mose) was later >corrupted to mouse after the >medieval period, in the 16th century, I believe. As far as I can tell, the >word mase/mose does not mean bird, per se, since there are other more common >OE words for bird. > >-- >- Ron Mura, Boston, Mass. rmura@world.std.com The German for tit is 'maise' (pronounce moiser, roughly), thus blue tit is 'blaumaise' etc. (The German for mouse is 'maus' prnounced 'mouse')