siskin - Wiktionary, the free dictionary


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From dialectal German Sisschen, Zeischen, diminutive form of Middle High German zisec, apparently ultimately from Proto-Slavic *čižь (compare e.g. Polish czyżyk).

siskin (plural siskins)

  1. A small green and yellow European finch, Carduelis spinus spinus or Carduelis spinus, now Spinus spinus.

    • 2001, WG Sebald, translated by Anthea Bell, Austerlitz, Penguin, published 2011, page 2:

      I sat there on a bench in dappled shade, beside an aviary full of brightly feathered finches and siskins fluttering about.

    • 2013 January, Paul Bartell, Ashli Moore, “Avian Migration: The Ultimate Red-Eye Flight”, in American Scientist‎[1], volume 101, number 1, archived from the original on 5 March 2016, pages 47–48:

      Many of these classic methods are still used, with some modern improvements. For example, with the aid of special microphones and automated sound detection software, ornithologists recently reported […] that pine siskins (Spinus pinus) undergo an irregular, nomadic type of nocturnal migration.

  2. Any of various similar birds in subfamily Carduelinae, principally in the genus Spinus.