† ˈamsel, amzel Obs. or ? dial.
[app. a. Ger. amsel:—OHG. amisala, cogn. w. OE. ósle, now ouzel.]
A name of the Blackbird and Ring Ouzel.
| a 1705 Ray Synops. Meth. Avium (1713) 65, Merula torquata, The Ring-Ouzel or Amzel. 1802 Montagu Ornith. Dict. s.v. Blackbird, Amsel, a ‘provincial’ name. [Not in any of the Glossaries of the Eng. Dial. Soc., and perhaps only a dealer's adoption of the German name, erroneously considered dialectal. Amsla became ósle in OE. in prehistoric times.] |