song sparrow
1
3.1
- noun
- /sɔŋ ˈspɛroʊ/
- US
:
gorrión cantor
- Song is very important in the life of song sparrows, as their common name implies, and in the research careers of the biologists who study them.
- a male song sparrow
Examples
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Today, the walk up was quite sedate, with only a few robins and chickadees along the road and a mockingbird and song sparrow at the Wardens.
Blog text (4) -
Common Yellowthroats, a cardinal, a Carolina wren, and some song sparrows joined them.
Blog text (30) -
Love the pretty little song sparrow!
Blog text (16) -
Looks kind of like a great big song sparrow, but a duller brown.
Fiction book (1998) -
One afternoon, a song sparrow sang in the brush above the Fenton River.
Fiction book (2000) -
The sweet melody of the song sparrow filled the forest as we walked along the trail.
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Every spring, I enjoy listening to the song sparrow sing from the branches outside my window.
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While hiking, we spotted a song sparrow perched on a fence, beautifully singing its tune.
Synonyms
The scientific name for the song sparrow, a small North American songbird
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound simply combines 'song' and 'sparrow' to denote a type of sparrow characterized by its singing, so the overall meaning is directly inferable from the constituents. This noun+noun compounding pattern is common cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows both words would readily understand it denotes a small song-producing sparrow.
Etymology
Song sparrow: The name song sparrow comes from a simple picture: people noticed a small sparrow that sings a beautiful song. That's why the name now means 'a small sparrow known for its song'.