tanager

[tan-uh-jer]

noun

any of numerous songbirds of the New World family Thraupidae, the males of which are usually brightly colored.

Origin of tanager

1605–15; < New Latin tanagra, metathetic variant of Tupi tangara

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

Examples from the Web for tanager

Historical Examples of tanager

I stood with a tanager in one hand, a lovely manakin in the other, thinking.
Nat the Naturalist
G. Manville Fenn
The tanager was always a very shy bird; he did not like to be looked at.
In Nesting Time
Olive Thorne Miller
I waited only for warm days to set free the tanager, and at last they came.
In Nesting Time
Olive Thorne Miller
If it tried, say, the tanager's, would we believe and accept it?
Wild Life Near Home
Dallas Lore Sharp
Tanager is uniformed first for conquest, then for guard duty.
Birds and All Nature, Vol. V, No. 4, April 1899
Various

British Dictionary definitions for tanager

tanager

noun

any American songbird of the family Thraupidae, having a short thick bill and a brilliantly coloured male plumage

Word Origin for tanager

C19: from New Latin tanagra, based on Tupi tangara

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 tanager

small American oscine bird, 1844, from Modern Latin tanagra, named 1758 by Linnaeus, alteration of Portuguese tangara, from Tupi (Brazil) tangara.