Etymology

starling

star·ling
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Today it means: A family, Sturnidae, of passerine birds. Full definition →

Middle English starling ← Old English stærling ← Proto-West Germanic *star
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starling · noun1

  1. Proto-Indo-European*ster-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*ster-os
  3. Proto-Germanic*staraz
  4. Proto-West Germanic*star
  5. Old Englishstær
  6. Old Englishstærling
  7. Middle Englishstarling
  8. English todaystarling

From Middle English starling, sterling, sterlinge, from Old English stærling, from stær (“starling”) + -ling (diminutive suffix). Cognate with Middle Dutch sterlinck (“starling”).

starling · noun2

Apparently a variant of staddling (although difficult to account for), or perhaps an alteration by association with another (unidentified) word.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.