Forms: α. 1 spearu(u)a, spearwa, 4 sperwe, 4–5 sparwe; 1 spearewa, 3–5 sparewe. β. 1 spearuwa, 3 speruwe, 5 sperow, sperrowe; 3 sparuwe, 4–6 sparowe (4, 6–7 sparr-), sparow, 4, 6 sparou (4 sparov, sparu, sparw, 5 sparoo), 6– sparrow. [OE. spearwa, etc., = Goth. sparwa, MHG. sparwe, sparbe, sperwe, older Da. sparwe, sporwe, spørwe (Da. spurv, Norw. dial. sporv, sparv, Sw. sparf; also obs. Da. spurg, sporig, NFris. sparreg). The original w of the stem has disappeared in OHG. sparo (MHG. spare, spar, G. dial. spar; cf. MHG. sperlinc, G. sperling) and ON. spǫrr (Norw. dial. sporr, spør, obs. Da. sparre, spurre). Outside of Teutonic the stem seems to occur in OPruss. spurglis sparrow, spergla-wanags sparrow-hawk.
The forms speara in the Vesp. Ps. lxxxiii. 4 and spare in the earlier Wycliffite Ps. ci. 8, although similar to the Continental forms without w, are so isolated in Eng. that they may be more scribal errors.]
1. A small brownish-grey bird of the family Fringillidae, indigenous to Europe, where it is very common, and naturalized in various other countries; esp. the house-sparrow Passerdomesticus.
α. c. 725. Corpus Gloss., F 128. Fenus, spearua.
c. 825. Vesp. Psalter ci. 8. ʓeworden ic eam swe swe spearwa … in timbre.
c. 900. trans. Bæda’s Hist., II. xiii. (1890), 136. Cume an spearwa & hrædlice þæt hus þurhfleo.
c. 1100. O. E. Chron. (MS. D), an. 1067. He … sæið þæt … an spearwa on gryn ne mæʓ befeallan forutan his foresceawunge.
c. 1205. Lay., 29274. He lette forð wenden swiðe ueole sparewen: Þa sparwen heore flut nomen [etc.].
a. 1325. Prose Psalter x. 1. Wende þou in-to heuen as a sparwe?
c. 1340. Nominale (Skeat), 390. [Man] takith sperwe in nette.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., I. 195. Þei ben betere þan many sparewis.
c. 1400. Brut, XCV. 94. Þai … token peces of tunder … and bonde to sparwe feet.
β. c. 1000. Ags. Ps. (Thorpe), ci. 5. Ic spearuwan … ʓelice ʓewearð.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 152. Ȝet is ancre iefned her to sparuwe þet is one under roue. Ibid. Ich am … ase speruwe þet is one.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 11986. Wit handes made he sparus tuelue.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter cxxiii. 6. We ere takyn out as sparow þat flees þe snare.
14[?]. Sir Beues (M.), 2526. Euery man callyd me a sparoo.
1456. Sir G. Haye, Law Arms (S.T.S.), 12. The sparow is a lytill foule janglare.
a. 1529. Skelton, P. Sparowe, 266. But my sparowe dyd pas All sparowes of the wode.
1555. Eden, Decades, II. VII. (Arb.), 129. There is no lesse plentie of popingiais, then with vs of dooues or sparous.
1616. R. C., Times’ Whistle (1871), 87. Fine gellies of decocted sparrowes bones.
1708. Prior, Turtle & Sparrow, 5. The Sparrow … (A Bird that loves to chirp and talk).
1784. Cowper, Task, V. 65. The sparrows peep, and quit the shelt’ring eaves.
1802. Bingley, Anim. Biog. (1813), II. 169. No bird is better known in every part of Great Britain than the Sparrow.
1897. Times, 5 Jan., 10/5. Few small birds, with the exception of the robin, will face the sparrow.
b. Used as a term of endearment.
c. 1600. Timon, II. i. (1842), 24. Lett me but kisse thyne eyes, my sweete delight, My sparrow,… my duck, my cony.
c. slang. (See quots.)
1879. Gd. Words, 739/1. There are their ‘sparrows’ (beer or beer-money), given by householders [to the dustmen] when their dust-holes are emptied.
1902. Daily Chron., 6 Dec., 3/7. I should like to say a few words about the milkman’s secret customers, otherwise ‘sparrows.’
2. With distinguishing terms, denoting varieties of the true sparrow, or other small birds in some way resembling these.
See also field-, house-, Java, mountain-, ring-, Savannah, swamp-sparrow, and HEDGE-, REED-, SONG-, TREE-SPARROW. Many other names, which have obtained little or no currency, are given in the ornithologies of Edwards, Latham, and Wilson.
1668. [see SPECKLED ppl. a.].
1678. Ray, Willughby’s Ornith., 385. The foolish Sparrow … is a Sea fowl, and feeds upon fish. It hath the cry of a Jay. Ibid. (a. 1705), Syn. Avium (1713), 187. Green Sparrow, or Green Humming Bird.
1767. trans. Cranz’ Greenland, I. 85. The akpalliarsuk, or sea-sparrow,… is no larger than a fieldfare.
1771. Encycl. Brit., II. 632/2. The black fringilla … is the American black sparrow with red eyes. Ibid., 634/1. The black fringilla, with a white belly, is the American snow-sparrow of Catesby.
1810. Wilson, Amer. Ornith., II. 128. The Chipping sparrow is five inches and a quarter long.
1842. J. B. Fraser, Mesopot. & Assyria, xv. 368. The becafico is called the fig-sparrow.
1899. W. T. Greene, Cage-Birds, 59. The Diamond Sparrow, also an Australian, but inhabiting further south than the Zebra Finch.
3. attrib. and Comb., as sparrow-chatter, -hole, -kind, -legs, -pest, -trap, -tribe; sparrow-billed, colo(u)red, -footed adjs.
1841. J. T. Hewlett, Parish Clerk, I. 288. Cormorants,… and the *sparrow-billed puffins.
1851. W. Anderson, Expos. Popery (1878), 125. Such is the *sparrow-chatter of a degenerate … generation.
1815. Stephens, in Shaw’s Gen. Zool., IX. II. 385. *Sparrow-coloured Bunting.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 156. The women [have feet] so short & smal, that thereupon they be called Struthopodes, i. *sparrow footed.
a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1757), 193. *Sparrow-holes under the eaves of a reek.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), V. 299. Of Birds of the *Sparrow Kind in General.
1886. W. J. Tucker, E. Europe, 385. A very little man, with a very big abdomen, on *sparrow legs.
1884. Bristol Mercury, 26 Aug., 8/1. The Chester Farmers’ Club met … to discuss the *sparrow pest and its remedies.
1876. Smiles, Sc. Natur., ii. (ed. 4), 38. A few … boys preparing *sparrow-traps.
1842. Loudon, Suburban Hort., 107. Among birds of the *sparrow tribe, the starling deserves particular notice.
4. Special combs.: sparrow-beak, dial. (see quot.); sparrow-bottle, a jar suspended on a wall to serve as a nesting-place for sparrows; sparrow club, a society formed for destroying sparrows; sparrow-hail, the smallest kind of shot; sparrow-mumbling, the action of holding a cock-sparrow’s wing in the mouth, and attempting to draw in the head by movement of the lips; sparrow-net, a net fixed on a pole, used for catching sparrows living in the eaves of houses or in grain-stacks; sparrow-picked a., marked with small indentations; sparrow-pie, a dish proverbially supposed to make the eater sharp-witted; sparrow-pot, = sparrow-bottle; sparrow-pudding, = sparrow-pie; sparrow-tail, a long narrow coat-tail; also attrib.
1854. Miss Baker, Northampt. Gloss., *Sparrow-beaks, fossil shark’s teeth: called also birds’ beaks.
1881. N. & Q., 6th Ser. IV. 456. *Sparrow bottles … of red ware … are continually used by most of the farmers in Thorney Fen.
1886. Pall Mall Gaz., 29 May, 4/2. Clubs, known as *‘sparrow clubs,’ were formed expressly with a view to their utter and speedy extermination.
1859. J. Watson’s Bards Border, 53. Some *sparrow-hail wad best despatch him.
1868. W. R. Trench, Realities Irish Life (1869), 22. Some flasks of gunpowder and a quantity of ‘sparrow hail.’
1852. Hawker, Cornish Ball. (1899), 147. Among them, swallowing living mice and *sparrow-mumbling had frequent place.
1621. Markham, Hungers Prev., 101. The Engine or *Sparrow-nette … must carry this fashion or proportion.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. xxii. (Roxb.), 278/1. That on the sinister chief is termed an Eve or Easing nett, or a Sparrow nett or Purse nett.
1707. Mortimer, Husb. (1721), I. 323. Many ways are made use of to destroy them; but none more effectual than the large folding Sparrow Net.
1898. F. W. Macey, Specifications in Detail, 130. Granite may be roughly axed, finely axed, *sparrow picked, or polished on face.
1881. Blackmore, Christowell, xxxvii. How sharp you are! You’ve been eating *sparrow-pie.
1886. P. S. Robinson, Valley Teet. Trees, 87. Introduce another British novelty—and try sparrow-pie.
1831. Rennie, Montagu’s Ornith. Dict., 486. Unless they multiply their *Sparrow pots yearly.
1833. Loudon, Encycl. Archit., § 550. The use of these sparrow pots is, to prevent the birds from dirtying the walls or windows with what falls from their nests.
1896. Daily News, 3 Nov., 7/2. The heckler … must rise very early in the morning and dine very liberally off *‘sparrow-pudding.’
1888. Eggleston, Graysons, xxvi. The lawyers in their blue *sparrow-tail coats with brass buttons, which constituted then [about 1840] a kind of professional uniform.
b. In names of animals and plants: sparrow-bunting (see quot.); † sparrow-camel, the ostrich; sparrow-duck, dial. the hooded crow; sparrow-owl, one or other of various small owls, esp. of the genus Glaucidium; † sparrow parrot, a small species of parrot; † sparrow’s toadflax (see quot. and sparrow-wort); sparrow’s-tongue, the knot-grass, Polygonum aviculare; sparrow-wort (see quots.).
1894–5. Lydekker, Roy. Nat. Hist., III. 416. The *sparrow-bunting (Zonotrichia albicollis),… differs from the true buntings by the exposed nostrils.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., 163. The common opinion of the Oestridge, Struthiocamelus, or *Sparrow-Camell conceives that it digesteth Iron.
1895. P. H. Emerson, Birds, xlix. 140. Kentishmen are sold and eaten as *‘sparrow-duck.’
1831. Rennie, Montagu’s Ornith. Dict., 488. The *Sparrow Owl is a very rare species in England.
1870. Gillmore, trans. Figuier’s Reptiles & Birds, 553. Sparrow Owls are of small size.
1787. Latham, Syn. Birds, Suppl. II. 93. Psittacus fringillaceus. *Sparrow Parrot…. General colour green, head blue.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, II. clvi. 443. Passerina linaria. *Sparrowes Tode flaxe. This plant also for resemblance sake is referred vnto the Linaries, bicause his leaues be like Linaria.
a. 1400. Stockholm Med. MS., in Archaeol., XXX. 413. *Sparwystungge…. Centenodium.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, Table Eng. Names, Sparrowes toong, that is Knotgrasse.
1760. J. Lee, Introd. Bot., App. 317. *Sparrow-wort, Passerina. Ibid. Sparrow-wort, Tragus’s, Stellera.
1852. G. Johnson, Cott. Gard. Dict., 681/2. Passerina. Sparrow-wort…. Greenhouse evergreens, white-flowered, and from the Cape of Good Hope.
Hence Sparrowcide, the destruction of sparrows; Sparrowdom, the region of sparrows; Sparrower, one who snares or kills sparrows; Sparrowhood, the condition of being a sparrow; Sparrowish a., characteristic of a sparrow; Sparrowless, devoid of sparrows; Sparrowling, a young sparrow; Sparrowy a., abounding in, frequented by, sparrows.
1865. St. James’ Mag., Feb., 375. *Sparrowcide is not a modern crime, but was extensively practised by our forefathers.
1880. Fraser’s Mag., Jan., 49. At least, when we get outside the cities we get outside of *Sparrowdom.
1830. trans. Aristophanes’ Birds, 226. Should any one of you slay Philocrates the *Sparrower, he shall receive a talent.
1869. Echo, 2 Sept. The sparrows, so soon as ever they grow from the callow state to mature *sparrowhood, become … dark and rusty.
1641. True Char. of Untrue Bishop, 4. Witnesse his many *Sparrowish, Wrenlike wanton extravagances.
1848. W. Stirling, Artists of Spain, I. 371. In these *sparrowless shades, Factor spent much of his time.
1849. Fraser’s Mag., XXXIX. 573. A poor, unfledged, twittering *sparrowling.
1891. G. Meredith, One of our Conq., II. iv. 85. London of the *sparrowy roadways and wearisome pavements.
