magpie

Meanings

1. 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. 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. 3
   verb

   To collect or hoard things the way a magpie does.

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

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.

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