Robin is a diminutive type of Robert, an Outdated French identify that entered England after the Norman Conquest. It used to be a well-liked identify in Continental Europe and derives from an historic Germanic given identify, Hrōþiberhtaz, from ‘Hrōþi’ which means ‘popularity’ and ‘berhta’ which means ‘brilliant’.
It’s not identified why the redbreast used to be given the moniker Robin. It might merely had been alliteration, or it will had been because of the chicken’s recognition and brilliant crimson breast.
Then again, not like many different species which misplaced their nicknames through the years, the robin’s identify caught and by means of the 1540s the unique identify of redbreast had in large part been distributed with and it changed into identified merely as robin.
It used to be additionally on occasion identified affectionally because the robinet, as used to be the chaffinch, which will have to be the avian report holder for the collection of nicknames in which it’s referred to, roberd being every other.
However why redbreast? As we alluded to firstly of this newsletter, robins don’t in truth have crimson breasts; they’re in fact orange.
It’s continuously mentioned that till the coming of the fruit, there used to be no English phrase for the color orange. This isn’t precisely true.
In Outdated English there used to be a phrase ‘geoluhread’ or ‘yellow-red’ – the g is prone to had been pronounced as a ‘y’ sound and the ‘eo’ diphthong will have been pronounced like ‘eh’, so it could have sounded very just like the fashionable translation – for reddish orange. There used to be additionally ‘geolucrog‘ (yellow-saffron) for yellowish orange. However many orange issues reminiscent of crimson deer, crimson hair, the Purple Planet, and the robin redbreast have been merely described as crimson.
What in regards to the American robin?
Till slightly lately the Eu robin used to be categorised as a member of the thrush circle of relatives associated with blackbirds, fieldfares, and redwings. It’s now thought to be to belong to the Outdated International flycatcher circle of relatives, and particularly to the chats, extra carefully associated with the nightingale.
The American robin, alternatively, is a member of the thrush circle of relatives, and when early colonial settlers within the New International first got here throughout it they spotted its resemblance to the robin again house, specifically its brilliant orange breast, and named it after it.
It used to be no longer the one chicken although to be bestowed with the identify robin. Any chicken in North The united states with a vital quantity of orange plumage used to be given the identify. And so bluebirds are on occasion referred to as blue robins, towhees are floor robins, and the Baltimore oriole is the golden robin.
The identify robin additionally refers to dozens of alternative species of birds such because the rufous-breasted bush robin and white-tailed robin which sit down within the chat circle of relatives, and the scarlet robin and Pekin robin which don’t.