dunnock
(ˈdʌnək)
Also 5 donek, dunoke, 7 dunneck, 9 dinnick (sense 2).
[app. f. dun a. + -ock dim. suffix; from the dusky brown colour of the plumage. Cf. dunlin.]
1. The hedge-sparrow or hedge-warbler (Accentor modularis).
| c 1475 Pict. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 761/38 Hec lonefa, a donek. 1483 Cath. Angl. 111/1 A Dunoke..curuca. 1611 Cotgr., Verdon, a Dunneck, Dike-smowler, Hedge-sparrow. 1824 Forster Perenn. Calend. in Hone Every-day Bk. II. 119 The dingie dunnock, and the swart colemouse. 1847 E. Brontë Wuthering Heights iv. (D.), Hareton has been cast out like an unfledged dunnock. |
2. (form dinnick) Applied in Devonshire to the Wryneck (Jynx torquilla).
| 1863 Q. Rev. July 245 Either the cuckoo or the cuckoo's servant, the dinnick, as it is called in Devonshire. 1885 Swainson Prov. Names Birds 104 Wryneck..Dinnick (Devon). From its brown plumage. |