Tits and coal (1 Viewer)

[Gonçalo Elias]

I have been trying to figure out the logic for using the word Coal in tit names, but it is not obivous at all.

Let's take a look at what happens in various languages.

Starting with English, the name Coal Tit is used for Periparus ater.
The same happens with Portuguese, where chapim-carvoeiro (meaning Coal Tit) is also the common name for Periparus ater.
However, in the case of French, the name involving coal, Mésange Charbonnière, refers to Parus major.
And in German the name related to coal, Kohlmeise, is also used for Parus major.
Dutch is no different here: Koolmees is the name for Parus major.
Moving on to Spanish, the situation gets more confusing: carbonero (meaning something like "Coaler") is the generic name for several tits: carbonero común for Parus major, carbonero garrapinos for Periparus ater and carbonero palustre for Poecile palustris (but not all tits are carboneros! some, like Blue and Crested have the generic name herrerillo).

Oddly enough, none of the species mentioned above has any relation to coal in its habits or in its scientific name.

There must be a reason for naming tits with words related to coal, but I can't figure out what it is. Any thoughts?

 

[njlarsen]

Color me curious: I have always assumed that Coal in this context refers to the color of the bird. That makes Parus major a less logical target for a common name which include coal.
Niels

 

[Jacana]

Apparently the old name for Coal Tit in German was "Kohlmeiß". This then got switched to Great Tit sometime around the 18th century maybe. The English Wikipedia page goes into surprising detail over the species' etymology in German: Coal tit - Wikipedia. Potentially similar things happened in Dutch and maybe French too. In Swedish it's "svartmes", which means "black tit".

ater means dull or dusky black in Latin, so I suppose that's where the association with "coal" comes from.

 

[James Jobling]

W. Lockwood, 1984, The Oxford Book of British Bird Names, p. 43, has, “Coalmouse, also spelt Colemouse. An obsolete name, originally loosely applied to various Tits, i.e. not only the Coal Tit, but also the Great and the Marsh (and Willow) Tits. It goes back via Middle English colmose to Old English colmāse, consisting of col coal, which naturally refers to the black plumage of head and throat so noticeable in the species mentioned, and māse, an ancient word, itself having the general sense of TIT. The present name is of West Germanic age, witness Dutch koolmees and German Kohlmeise, which in the modern standard languages have acquired the specific sense of Great Tit. Pennant 1768 used ‘Coal Mouse’ specifically to denote the Coal Tit, perhaps feeling that this vernacular name best matched Gesner 1555 Parus ater (āter black), but altered it in 1776 (following Tunstall 1771) to ‘Cole Titmouse’ ... Coal Tit, formerly Cole Tit. Generalized by Yarrell 1843 ‘Cole Tit’, for earlier COAL or COLE TITMOUSE, first in Tunstall 1771 ‘Cole Titmouse’ ... The spelling coal is first noticed in Bewick 1826 ‘Coal Titmouse’; it becomes usual by the end of the century”

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

I have been trying to figure out the logic for using the word Coal in tit names, but it is not obivous at all.

Let's take a look at what happens in various languages.

Starting with English, the name Coal Tit is used for Periparus ater.
The same happens with Portuguese, where chapim-carvoeiro (meaning Coal Tit) is also the common name for Periparus ater.
However, in the case of French, the name involving coal, Mésange Charbonnière, refers to Parus major.
And in German the name related to coal, Kohlmeise, is also used for Parus major.
Dutch is no different here: Koolmees is the name for Parus major.
Moving on to Spanish, the situation gets more confusing: carbonero (meaning something like "Coaler") is the generic name for several tits: carbonero común for Parus major, carbonero garrapinos for Periparus ater and carbonero palustre for Poecile palustris (but not all tits are carboneros! some, like Blue and Crested have the generic name herrerillo).

Oddly enough, none of the species mentioned above has any relation to coal in its habits or in its scientific name.

There must be a reason for naming tits with words related to coal, but I can't figure out what it is. Any thoughts?

In the past (19th century), Parus major was named "Grande Mésange charbonnière" (Great Coal Tit), while Parus ater (now Periparus ater) was called "Petite Mésange charbonnière" (Little Coal Tit), now "Mésange noire". It could be the beginning of an explanation.

 

[dantheman]

See also this recently resurrected thread -

why coal tit was named "coal" tit?

just for it has deep black head? B (:

www.birdforum.net

 

[Gonçalo Elias]

Thanks everyone for the contributions!