Etymology

distelfink

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Today it means: A stylized goldfinch in Pennsylvania Dutch folk art, representing happiness and good fortune. Full definition →

Pennsylvania German distelfink
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The story

  1. Pennsylvania German · derived fromdistelfink
  2. English todaydistelfink

From Pennsylvania German distelfink, homologous to High German Distelfink (“thistle finch”), the European goldfinch.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.