passerine

The story

1. Latin · derived frompasser“sparrow”
2. French · derived frompassereaux
3. New Latin · borrowed fromPasserinae“former order of birds”
4. Latin · derived frompasserīnus“of or fit for sparrows”
5. New Latin · borrowed frompasserinus“bird species”
6. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*peth₂-“to spread out; to fly (in the sense of spreading out wings)”
7. Latin · derived frompasser“sparrow”
8. New Latin · borrowed fromPasser“bird genus”
9. English todaypasserine

Adjective sense 1 is borrowed from New Latin Passer (“bird genus”) (from Latin passer (“sparrow”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peth₂- (“to spread out; to fly (in the sense of spreading out wings)”)) + English -ine (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’). Adjective sense 2 is borrowed from New Latin passerinus (“bird species”) + English -ine. Passerinus is derived from Latin passerīnus (“of or fit for sparrows”), from passer (“sparrow”) (see above) + -īnus (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’). The noun is borrowed from New Latin Passerinae (“former order of birds”), a calque of French passereaux, the plural of passereau (“sparrow; passerine (bird of the order Passeriformes)”), from Latin passer (“sparrow”) (see above) + -eau (suffix forming diminutive masculine nouns, specifically the names of young animals). Cognates * French passerin (“sparrowlike”) (obsolete), Provençal French passerine (“passerine whitethroat, a bird from order Passeriformes”)

Words from the same roots