Steorlings

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An old English term for the starling bird ; a freeman of modest standing in early Anglo-Saxon society who held a small landed estate
2. A archaic word for a starling, the glossy speckled songbird ; an Anglo-Saxon freeholder of lesser rank who owned modest land under early English custom
3. Old names for the common starling songbird ; in early medieval England, a free man of humble status and small property holdings

Etymology: Steorlings is the Old English plural of "steorling," the word for the starling bird, though the form itself is not a plural in the usual sense. The Old English noun was "stær" (or "stearn"), and the "-ling" ending is a diminutive, so the name means something like "little starling" or "little stær." The word appears in Old English glosses and texts, where it was used alongside "stær" for the bird. The "steorl" in this word is the same root that gives modern English "stare," which is linked to the bird's staring look or its habit of gazing about. Some sources connect it to a Germanic root for a speckled or spotted creature, which would fit the starling's plumage, but the exact sense is uncertain.