spadger

The story

1. Old Norse · derived fromspǫrr“sparrow”
2. Scots · borrowed fromspurg“sparrow”
3. English todayspadger

Originally British dialect (1850s), from spadge (fronted variant of northern dialect spag) + -er. The northern dialect term spag is a derhoticised form of Scots spurg (“sparrow”), from spur (from Old Norse spǫrr (“sparrow”), suffixless cognate of Old English spearwa) + diminutive suffix -ock, with loss of vowel and voicing of -k to -g after r.