Lynet

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A small brown songbird of the finch family, known for its melodious call and often found in hedgerows and open country
2. An old name for a small Eurasian finch with a sweet, tuneful song and reddish markings on its breast
3. A petite finch bird with brownish plumage that sings pleasantly and frequents shrubland and heath

Etymology: Spelled "lynet" in older English, this is a variant of "linnet," the small songbird with a brownish back and a rosy breast in males. Its name goes back to Old English, where the bird was called "linetwige," roughly "flax-bird," because linnets feed heavily on the seeds of flax, the plant that yielded linen. The "lin" in the name is the same root as "linen" and the Latin "linum," meaning flax. The bird's name was later reshaped by French influence. Old French "linotte" had the same flax-seed sense, and English speakers of the late Middle Ages adopted that form, which explains the spelling variants that survive in older texts. Over time "linnet" settled as the standard spelling, while "lynet" lingered in poetry and dialect. Readers of Tennyson may also recognise the name from "Gareth and Lynette," where it belongs to a character in the Arthurian story.