magpie

C2 Topic:Animals

US /ˈmæɡˌpaɪ/ See IPA manual

Freq #25713

Meanings

1

noun
A noisy black-and-white bird with a long tail, related to the crow.

A magpie landed on the fence and chattered loudly at us.
2

noun
A person who loves to collect or hoard small objects.

My grandmother was a real magpie who kept boxes of buttons, ribbons, and old coins.
3

verb
To collect or hoard things the way a magpie does.

Over the years he magpied an enormous pile of vintage records.

Verb forms

Verb forms are not available for this word yet.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

2 noun · a person who loves to... scavenger

Word family

Forms magpies

Derived forms bell-magpiemagpie-jaymagpie-larkmagpie-robinmagpieishmagpielikesea-magpie

Etymology

From Mag, a nickname for Margaret that was used to denote a chatterer, + archaic pie (“magpie”), from Middle English pie, pye, from Old French pie, from Latin pīca, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peyk- (“woodpecker, magpie”). Displaced native Old English agu (“magpie”) and Middle English aguster (“magpie”), whence English haggister.

*(s)peyk- Proto-Indo-European pie Middle English pīca Latin

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Animals

External links

# magpie

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2
**Part of speech:** noun, verb
**IPA (US):** /ˈmæɡˌpaɪ/
**Frequency rank:** 25713

## Meanings
1. A noisy black-and-white bird with a long tail, related to the crow.
2. A person who loves to collect or hoard small objects.
3. To collect or hoard things the way a magpie does.

## Examples
- A magpie landed on the fence and chattered loudly at us.
- My grandmother was a real magpie who kept boxes of buttons, ribbons, and old coins.
- Over the years he magpied an enormous pile of vintage records.

## Derived Forms
- bell-magpie
- magpie-jay
- magpie-lark
- magpie-robin
- magpieish
- magpielike
- sea-magpie

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: *(s)peyk-
- Root: pie
- Root: pīca

## Etymology
From Mag, a nickname for Margaret that was used to denote a chatterer, + archaic pie (“magpie”), from Middle English pie, pye, from Old French pie, from Latin pīca, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peyk- (“woodpecker, magpie”). Displaced native Old English agu (“magpie”) and Middle English aguster (“magpie”), whence English haggister.

## AI Etymology
Magpie is from Mag, a nickname for Margaret that was used to denote a chatterer, + archaic pie (“magpie”), from Middle English pie, pye, from Old French pie, from Latin pīca, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peyk- (“woodpecker, magpie”). Displaced native Old English agu (“magpie”) and Middle English aguster (“magpie”), whence English haggister. The analysis is mainly morphological: the modern form is built from the named base and affix. Important recorded forms include *(s)peyk- (Proto-Indo-European), pie (Middle English), pie (Old French), and pīca (Latin). Current senses include a noisy black-and-white bird with a long tail, related to the crow and a person who loves to collect or hoard small objects. The wider family includes derived forms such as bell-magpie, magpie-jay, magpie-lark, magpie-robin, and magpieish.

## Topics
- Animals

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