sparrow

nounattested in dialogue

United Kingdom//ˈspæɹəʊ//
United Kingdom//ˈspaɹəw//
United States//ˈspæɹoʊ//
//ˈspɛɹoʊ//

The house sparrow, Passer domesticus; a small bird with a short bill, and brown, white and gray feathers.

noun

1
The house sparrow, Passer domesticus; a small bird with a short bill, and brown, white and gray feathers.
Man progresses generally, not both legs at once like a sparrow, but by putting one leg forward first, and then the other.
In a poem by Sappho, Aphrodite is represented as riding in a car drawn by sparrows.
2
A member of the family Passeridae, comprising small Old World songbirds.
3
A member of the family Passerellidae (or Emberizidae, under classification systems that subsume the New World sparrows under Emberizidae), comprising small New World songbirds.
4
Generically, any small, nondescript bird.
5
A quick-witted, lively person.
cockney sparrow
I take it there 's scarcely a happier fellow alive than your honest town-bred smoke-dried cockney sparrow.
Professional cockney sparrow Martine has acted since childhood.

Etymology

From Middle English sparewe, sparowe, sparu, sparwe, spearewe, sperrewe, from Old English spearwa, from Proto-West Germanic *sparwō, from Proto-Germanic *sparwô, from Proto-Indo-European *spḗr (“sparrow”). Cognates Cognate with Yola sparrowe (“sparrow”), North Frisian sparag, spåri (“sparrow”), Saterland Frisian Spräie (“sparrow”), Alemannic German and Luxembourgish Spatz (“sparrow”), Dutch spreeuw (“starling”), German Spatz, Sperling (“sparrow”), Vilamovian śpielik, śpjelik, śpjeliḱ (“sparrow”), Yiddish שפּערל (shperl, “sparrow”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål spurv (“sparrow”), Faroese spurvur (“sparrow”), Norwegian Nynorsk sporv (“sparrow”), Swedish sparv (“sparrow”), Gothic 𐍃𐍀𐌰𐍂𐍅𐌰 (sparwa, “sparrow”); also Latin parra (“bird of ill omen”), Ancient Greek ψάρ (psár), ψήρ (psḗr, “starling”).

Forms

plural: sparrows

Sparks · A surname from Old Norse.sparky · Lively and animated.Sparky · A nickname for a person who is lively and animated.

sparrow · The house sparrow, Passer domesticus; a small bird with a short bill, and brown, white and gray feathers.

Sparrow · A surname.Spartacus · A Thracian name, notably borne by a gladiator who was one of…spartan · Austere, frugal, characterized by self-denial.

The neighbouring pages — Alphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.