titmouse

English

a tufted titmouse, Baeolophus bicolor

Etymology

From Middle English titmose, compound of tit (“small bird”) and mose, from Old English māse (“titmouse”), from Proto-West Germanic *maisā, from Proto-Germanic *maisǭ (compare Dutch mees, German Meise, Old Norse meisingr, French mésange), from *maisaz (“tiny, puny”) (compare Norwegian meis (“skinny weakling”)). Spelling as well as the plural form in imitation of the otherwise unrelated mouse.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈtɪtmaʊs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

titmouse (plural titmouses or titmice)

1. Any small passerine bird of the family Paridae, which are found in the woods of the Northern Hemisphere and of Africa.

Synonyms

• tit

Derived terms

• black-crested titmouse
• blue titmouse
• bridled titmouse
• juniper titmouse
• long-tailed titmouse
• oak titmouse

 

Translations

any bird of the family Paridae

• Albanian: trishtil (sq) m
• Asturian: branín (ast)
• Belarusian: сіні́ца f (siníca)
• Bulgarian: синигер (bg) m (siniger)
• Catalan: mallerenga (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 山雀 (zh) (shānquè)

• Czech: sýkora (cs) f
• Danish: mejse (da) c
• Dutch: mees (nl)
• Esperanto: paruo (eo)
• Estonian: tihane (et)
• Finnish: tiainen (fi)
• French: mésange (fr) f
• Galician: meixengra f
• Georgian: წივწივა (c̣ivc̣iva)
• German: Meise (de) f
• Greek:

  Ancient: αἰγίθαλλος m (aigíthallos)

• Hungarian: cinke (hu)
• Ido: paruo (io)
• Irish: meantán (ga) m
• Italian: cincia (it) f
• Latgalian: zeile f
• Latvian: zīlīte f
• Lithuanian: zylė (lt) f
• Mari:

  Eastern Mari: киса (kisa)

• Navajo: chʼíshiibeezhii
• Norwegian: meis (no)
• Polish: sikora (pl) f
• Portuguese: chapim (pt) m, mejengra (pt) f
• Romanian: pițigoi (ro) m
• Romansch: (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan, Sutsilvan) maset m, (Surmiran) sbrensligna f, (Puter) tschingallegra f, (Vallader) parüschla f
• Russian: сини́ца (ru) f (siníca)
• Scottish Gaelic: ialtag f
• Skolt Sami: ceeʒʒaž
• Slovak: sýkora f
• Slovene: sinica (sl) f
• Spanish: carbonero (es) m
• Swedish: mes (sv) c, tita (sv) c
• Udmurt: пислэг (pisleg)
• Ukrainian: сини́ця f (synýcja)
• Volapük: parud (vo), (older term) titit
• Welsh: titw m, swidw f, yswidw f

See also

• chickadee
• Pseudopodoces
• Baeolophus
• Melanochlora
• Sylviparus

References

• “titmouse, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2019.

Anagrams

• time outs, time-outs, timeouts, times out, tsumoite