sparrow

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The house sparrow, Passer domesticus; a small bird with a short bill, and brown, white and gray feathers.

   Man progresses generally, not both legs at once like a sparrow, but by putting one leg forward first, and then the other.

2. 2
   noun

   A quick-witted, lively person.

   cockney sparrow

3. 3
   noun

   small brownish European songbird

4. 4
   noun

   any of several small dull-colored singing birds feeding on seeds or insects

5. 5
   noun

   A member of the family Passeridae, comprising small Old World songbirds.

6. 6
   noun

   A member of the family Passerellidae (or Emberizidae, under classification systems that subsume the New World sparrows under Emberizidae), comprising small New World songbirds.

7. 7
   noun

   Generically, any small, nondescript bird.

8. 8
   name

   A surname.

Etymology

From Middle English sparwe, sparowe, from Old English spearwa, from Proto-West Germanic *sparwō, from Proto-Germanic *sparwô, from Proto-Indo-European *spḗr (“sparrow”). Cognate with Dutch spreeuw (“starling”), Alemannic German Spar (“sparrow”), German Sperling (“sparrow”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål spurv (“sparrow”), Norwegian Nynorsk sporv (“sparrow”), Swedish sparv (“sparrow”), Breton frao (“crow”), Tocharian A ṣpārāñ, Ancient Greek ψάρ (psár, “starling”).