titmouse

English

Etymology

From Middle English titmose, compound of tit (“small bird”) and mose, from Old English māse (“titmouse”), from Proto-West Germanic *maisā, from Proto-Germanic *maisǭ (compare Dutch mees, German Meise, Old Norse meisingr, French mésange), from *maisaz (“tiny, puny”) (compare Norwegian meis (“skinny weakling”)). Spelling as well as the plural form in imitation of the otherwise unrelated mouse.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈtɪtmaʊs/

• Audio (Southern England):

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Noun

titmouse (plural titmice or titmouses)

1. Any small passerine bird mostly of the genus Baeolophus, which are found in the woods of the Northern Hemisphere and of Africa.

Synonyms

• tit

Derived terms

• black-crested titmouse (Baeolophus atricristatus)
• blue titmouse (Cyanistes caeruleus)
• bridled titmouse (Baeolophus wollweberi)
• juniper titmouse
• long-tailed titmouse (Aegithalos caudatus)
• oak titmouse (Baeolophus inornatus)
• tufted titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor)

Translations

certain parid bird

Albanian: trishtil (sq) m Asturian: branín (ast) Belarusian: сіні́ца f (siníca) Bulgarian: синигер (bg) m (siniger) Catalan: mallerenga (ca) f Chinese: Mandarin: 山雀 (zh) (shānquè) Czech: sýkora (cs) f Danish: mejse (da) c Dutch: mees (nl) Esperanto: paruo (eo) Estonian: tihane (et) Finnish: tiainen (fi) French: mésange (fr) f Galician: meixengra f Georgian: წივწივა (c̣ivc̣iva) German: Meise (de) f Greek: Ancient: αἰγίθαλλος m (aigíthallos) Hungarian: cinke (hu) Ido: paruo (io) Irish: meantán (ga) m Italian: cincia (it) f Latgalian: zeile f Latin: (please verify) rubisca f Latvian: zīlīte f Lithuanian: zylė (lt) f Mari: Eastern Mari: киса (kisa) Navajo: chʼíshiibeezhii Norwegian: meis (no) Polish: sikora (pl) f Portuguese: chapim (pt) m, mejengra (pt) f Romanian: pițigoi (ro) m Romansch: (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan, Sutsilvan) maset m, (Surmiran) sbrensligna f, (Puter) tschingallegra f, (Vallader) parüschla f Russian: сини́ца (ru) f (siníca) Scottish Gaelic: ialtag f Skolt Sami: ceeʒʒaž Slovak: sýkora f Slovene: sinica (sl) f Spanish: paro carbonero m, carbonero (es) m Swedish: mes (sv) c, tita (sv) c Udmurt: пислэг (pisleg) Ukrainian: сини́ця f (synýcja) Unami: tànktiyas Volapük: parud (vo), (older term) titit Welsh: titw m, swidw f, yswidw f

See also

• chickadee
• Pseudopodoces
• Baeolophus
• Melanochlora
• Sylviparus

References

• titmouse on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “titmouse”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “titmouse, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2019.

Anagrams

• time outs, time-outs, timeouts, times out, tsumoite