Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of several small finches, such as Carduelis spinus, a greenish-yellow finch of Eurasia related to the goldfinch, or the pine siskin of North America.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A small fringilline bird, Chrysomitris (or Spinus) spinus, related to the goldfinch, inhabiting the temperate parts of the Palearctic region; the aberdevine or blackheaded thistlefinch; the tarin. The length is 4½ inches, the extent 9 inches; the male has the crown and throat black, the back grayish -green, streaked with black shaft-lines, the breast yellow, the abdomen whitish, the sides streaked with black, the wings and tail varied with yellow. The female is duller and more simply colored. The bill is extremely acute. The name is extended, with a qualifying term, to a few closely related birds: thus, the American siskin is the pine-flnch, Chrysomitris (or Spinus) pinus.
Wiktionary
- n. A small green and yellow European finch, Carduelis Spinus spinus or Carduelis spinus.
- n. Any of various similar birds in the genera Carduelis and Serinus.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A small green and yellow European finch (Spinus spinus, or Carduelis spinus); -- called also
aberdevine . - n. The American pinefinch (S. pinus); -- called also
pine siskin . See pinefinch.
WordNet 3.0
- n. small yellow-and-black Eurasian finch with a sharp beak
Etymologies
- From dialectal German Sisschen, Zeischen, diminutive form of Middle High German zisec, apparently ultimately from Proto-Slavic (compare e.g. Polish czyżik). (Wiktionary)
- Obsolete Dutch sīsken, from alteration of Middle Dutch, diminutive of sīs, from Middle Low German csītze, probably from Czech číž, of imitative origin. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Adult male Ethiopian black-headed siskin, Serinus nigriceps, also known as the Ethiopian siskin or (African/Abyssinian) black-headed siskin, or the black-headed serin, photographed at Bale Mountains, Ethiopia (Africa).”
The Guardian: Mystery bird: Abyssinian siskin, Serinus nigriceps
“Response: This is adult male black-headed siskin, Serinus nigriceps.”
The Guardian: Mystery bird: Abyssinian siskin, Serinus nigriceps
“Some bird was active in the bush behind me, a siskin, I supposed, or possibly a thrush.”
“Another round of the finch-siskin-junco with added! chickadees turmoil in our side yard.”
“Nevertheless, the area is considered an Endemic Bird Area by BirdLife International, and is home to a number of true fynbos species such as the Cape sugarbird (Promerops cafer), the orange-breasted sunbird (Nectarinia violacea), the Protea canary (Serinus leucopterus) and the Cape siskin (Serinus totta).”
“Examples are buff-breasted tody-tyrant (Hemitriccus mirandae), white-winged cotinga (Xipholena atropurpurea), seven-colored tanager (Tangara fastuosa), and yellow-faced siskin (Carduelis yarrellii).”
“Restricted-range birds in this ecoregion include the Santa Barbara screech-owl (Otus barbarus), belted flycatcher (Xenotriccus callizonus), pink-heade warbler (Ergaticus versicolor), and black-capped siskin (Carduelis atriceps) classified as near threatened.”
“With respect to fauna, the most notable avian endemisms are those relating to the red siskin (Carduelis cucullata), a small bird with bright red and black plumage that is considered one of the most threatened species in Venezuela.”
“Mrs D is hoping that siskins will return this year - there has already been a much greater influx of all the finches including siskin than usual into Southern England.”
“If a siskin or a chaffinch could have spoken, and had begun declaring that it would peck another bird to death, it would not have reduced me to greater amazement than did Ivan at that moment.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘siskin’.
-
Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
-
birds
birds with singular names from
at least 9 English dictionariesaasvogel, aberdevine, accentor, accipiter, aepyornis, agami, albatross, alcatras, alcid, alcidine, amadavat, amokura and 1056 more...
-
phrontistery-s
from phrontistery.info
sabaton, sabbatarian, sabbulonarium, sabelline, sabin, sable, sabliere, sabot, sabretache, sabulous, saburration, saccade and 1593 more...
-
Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
-
More Bird Wirds: North America
Birds endemic to the United States and/or North America.
toucan, peacock, weaver, bullfinch, redpoll, siskin, crossbill, finch, rosy-finch, oriole, cowbird, blackbird and 213 more...
-
looked up
Words I've come across while reading and looked up in the dictionary.
deesis, pendentive, revetment, aedicule, stemma, patera, ephod, entrepot, corbel, exedra, volute, archivolt and 1406 more...
-
End in -kin
You heard it here first. Well, maybe not first, but you heard it here. Well, maybe not "heard," but read. You read it here. At some point.
gherkin, merkin, firkin, malkin, pumpkin, bumpkin, pipkin, bodkin, napkin, mannikin, pigskin, sealskin and 83 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for siskin.
knitandpurl "Midspring brings with it singing birds, six kinds (finch, siskin, ibis, tit, pipit, swift), whistling shrill chirps, trilling chirr chirr in high pitch."
Eunoia by Christian Bök (upgraded edition), p 52 May 21, 2010
yarb Citation on ugsome. Jul 13, 2008