Merl

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A European songbird with predominantly dark plumage, related to the thrush family
2. A blackbird native to Europe, known for its melodious song and dark coloring
3. A dark-feathered European bird of the thrush family, valued for its musical call

Etymology: The word "merl" is an alternative form of "merle," and its surprising trail runs back to a bird's name that is also a color. Latin "merula" meant "blackbird," and the Proto-Indo-European root behind it, *h₂mes-, carried the sense "black." So the bird was named for its dark plumage, and the word's oldest meaning is simply that colour. The Latin name passed into Old French as "merle," and Middle English then borrowed it, first as "merle" and, directly from Latin, as "merule." Modern scientists kept the link alive: the common blackbird's scientific name, Turdus merula, preserves the same Latin word. The English spelling "merl" is the shorter variant of that Middle English form. Related words in the Celtic languages show the same root. Breton "moualch" and Welsh "mwyalch" both mean "ouzel" or "blackbird" in their own tongues. English "ouzel" is only distantly related, so the blackbird's name has taken several separate paths across Europe.

Synonyms: blackbird, merle