Birdbath

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A shallow outdoor container that serves to provide a space for birds to drink and wash is often found in residential gardens
2. This garden feature acts as a water supply for birds, enabling them to clean their feathers and hydrate effectively
3. A designated receptacle outdoors, designed for avian creatures to engage in bathing and drinking, promotes their cleanliness and hydration needs

Etymology: Birdbath is about as transparent as compounds get: a bird's bath, a shallow basin set out in a garden so birds can drink and wash. The interest lies in the second half. "Bath" comes from Old English "bæþ," which meant a bathing or washing of the body, and only later came to name the tub or basin used for it. A birdbath therefore takes a word for an act of washing and attaches it to a small outdoor vessel meant for creatures that have no use for a tub at all. The word "bird" has a similar tidy lineage, but it was not always the common word for the animal. Older English used "fowl" and "fugel" more broadly, and "bird" originally meant a young bird or nestling before it gradually took over as the general term. The compound thus joins two words whose senses have shifted over the centuries, yet the combined sense remains literal and unambiguous.

Synonyms: water basin, bird feeder