linnet

[lin-it]

noun

a small Old World finch, Carduelis cannabina.

any of various related birds, as the house finch.

Origin of linnet

1520–30; earlier linet < Middle French (Walloon, Picard) linette (French linot, linotte), derivative of lin flax (cf. line¹; so named for its diet of flaxseeds); see -et

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for linnet

Historical Examples of linnet

The melody of singing birds ranks as follows: The nightingale first, then the linnet, titlark, sky lark and wood lark.
Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information, 1889
Barkham Burroughs
Eagle had flown higher than all the rest, and had carried Linnet on his back.
Myths and Legends of the Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes
Various
A blackbird conversed with a family of wrens about it, and a linnet endorsed their view, that Lizarann was certainly coming back.
It Never Can Happen Again
William De Morgan
She turned for confirmation to Linnet and Matthew Henry, and they both nodded.
Major Vigoureux
A. T. Quiller-Couch
Sir, he had heard something of the fabulous tale of the wren sitting upon the eagle's wing, and he had applied it to a linnet.
Life of Johnson
James Boswell

British Dictionary definitions for linnet

linnet

noun

a brownish Old World finch, Acanthis cannabina : the male has a red breast and forehead

Also called: house finch a similar and related North American bird, Carpodacus mexicanus

Word Origin for linnet

C16: from Old French linotte, ultimately from Latin līnum flax (because the bird feeds on flaxseeds)

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for linnet

small finch-like songbird, 1530s, from Middle French linette "grain of flax," diminutive of lin "flax," from Latin linum "linen" (see linen). Flaxseed forms much of the bird's diet. Old English name for the bird was linetwige, with second element perhaps meaning "pluck." This yielded Middle English and dialectal lintwhite.