Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Relating to, resembling, or characteristic of parrots.
  • adjective Of or belonging to the family Psittacidae, which includes the macaws, parakeets, and most other parrots.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Parrot-like; resembling or related to parrots; of or pertaining to the Psittaci or Psïttacidæ in any sense; psittacomorphic. Also psittacean, psittaceous, psittacid.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to parrots.
  • noun Any bird in the order Psittaciformes: a parrot.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin psittacīnus, from psittacus, parrot, from Greek psittakos.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Ancient Greek ψιττακός (psittakos).

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Examples

  • Usually it is those who seek the gratification of personal glory as well as the sound of the cash register who pump themselves full of this or that chemical, preferably one hitherto unknown to science so that the authorities, who religiously trot out the psittacine mantra that this is the most drug-free Olympics ever, are left flat-footed in their wake.

    Boycott the Olympics & Read Proust Instead 2008

  • Thus, Irene writes in her book The Alex Studies, “the failure to document complex psittacine communication in the wild might be just that—a human failure, not a lack of capacity in parrots.”

    Birdology Sy Montgomery 2010

  • As we digest the probability that the House of Commons will vote to ratify the EU Constitution without a single shred of democratic legitimacy, even the Guardian, which can normally be relied upon to peddle the Party Line in as psittacine a manner as it can manage, has felt moved to object to the present undemocratic outrage being perpetrated by Labour.

    Archive 2008-01-20 2008

  • As we digest the probability that the House of Commons will vote to ratify the EU Constitution without a single shred of democratic legitimacy, even the Guardian, which can normally be relied upon to peddle the Party Line in as psittacine a manner as it can manage, has felt moved to object to the present undemocratic outrage being perpetrated by Labour.

    Without Our Consent, They Are Nothing 2008

  • Usually it is those who seek the gratification of personal glory as well as the sound of the cash register who pump themselves full of this or that chemical, preferably one hitherto unknown to science so that the authorities, who religiously trot out the psittacine mantra that this is the most drug-free Olympics ever, are left flat-footed in their wake.

    Archive 2008-03-23 2008

  • Almost the only positive thing he can do is repeat, almost ad nauseam, the psittacine mantras of how wonderful everything has been since 1997 and financial stability.

    Archive 2007-09-23 2007

  • Almost the only positive thing he can do is repeat, almost ad nauseam, the psittacine mantras of how wonderful everything has been since 1997 and financial stability.

    The Tricky Dicky Question 2007

  • And telling us that they have binned the anthem and the flag and the word ‘constitution’ will not do, nor will trotting out the singularly psittacine mantra of 'the constitutional concept is abandoned'.

    Archive 2007-09-09 2007

  • Jim Murphy, HMG's Europe Minster, a peddlar of the particularly psittacine mantra about the constitutional concept being abandoned, has written a defence of the EU Constitution here for the Spectator.

    Archive 2007-09-16 2007

  • He has recited the psittacine mantra “The constitutional concept has been abandoned” so often that he has come to believe it.

    Archive 2007-12-09 2007

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