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starling

(n): gregarious birds native to the Old World
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10 months ago knitandpurl said:

From By Hook or By Crook by David Crystal: "It is from Old English, steor + ling, 'spotted'. In the eighteenth century, two men who slept with the same woman were said to be brother-starlings. In the nineteenth century, the police used to refer to someone under surveillance as a starling – a person who had been 'spotted', a 'marked man'." (p 81)

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rosemilk (105 words)
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