jackdaw

1 7.4

A small black and grey bird related to crows that often takes shiny objects

noun
/ˈdʒækˌdɔ/

: corneja

In the morning, the jackdaws leave La Badia's tower for the day, as they have since La Badia was built a thousand years ago.
jackdaw flies
jackdaw nest

Examples

Only the jackdaws are still here, getting tamer by the day; when I feed the poultry in the mornings, they watch my every movement closely and come and sit on the lowest branches of the fruit trees, croaking.

Fiction book (1994)
At that time, there were many jackdaws living in different rooftops in the town.
But they show a lot of ritualized aggressive behaviors, and you see that in jackdaws as well.
Marion insisted on cleaning up the kitchen while they sat around the table, idle as jackdaws.

Fiction book (1999)
Disturbed by something I cannot see, a pair of jackdaws flies up, squawking, from the ragged thatch of the buildings fringing the yard.

Fiction book (2001)
In the park, I saw a jackdaw searching for shiny objects among the grass.
A flock of jackdaws gathered on the roof, their caws echoing in the quiet morning.
The jackdaw perched on the fence, observing its surroundings with keen eyes.

Synonyms

daw

vsjackdaw

1 9.9

A small black and grey bird like a crow that often takes shiny things

is the same species but presented under the more common modern name

Surface Forms

jackdaw singular

jackdaws plural

Morphology

jackdaw = jack + daw (opaque) = jack + daw

Although formed from 'jack' + 'daw', 'daw' is an archaic/rare word and the compound is lexicalized, so learners cannot reliably derive the meaning from its parts.

Etymology

Jackdaw comes from two old words: jack, a common name that came to mean 'an ordinary man' or 'small', and daw, an old word for this kind of bird. A helpful way to remember it is to picture a cheeky little 'Jack' picking up shiny things, which is why a jackdaw is the small black-and-grey bird often seen taking shiny objects.