magpie
mag·pie
noun
long-tailed black-and-white bird that utters a chattering call
an obnoxious and foolish and loquacious talker
Origin
From Mag, a nickname for Margaret that was used to denote a chatterer, + archaic pie (“magpie”), from Middle English pie, pye, from Old French pie, from Latin pīca, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peyk- (“woodpecker, magpie”). Displaced native Old English agu (“magpie”) and Middle English aguster (“magpie”), whence English haggister.
Phrases
- Australian magpie Cracticus tibicen
- azure-winged magpie
- black magpie
- black-billed magpie
- blue magpie
- Eurasian magpie
- green magpie
- Gymnorhina tibicen
Related words
Broader terms
Narrower terms
Parts
WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.