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why coal tit was named "coal" tit? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter naturegirl
- Start date
Xenospiza
Distracted
As someone revived this thread: "kol" means "forehead" here, like the English "front" or the German "Bläss".
So it has nothing to do with "kool" which can mean "coal" or "cabbage" ("Kohle" or "Kohl").
This resurrection of an old thread probably make some of us laugh (at least, for me, that wasn't here at that time)
jurek
Well-known member
Since this thread was revived:
Few years ago, somebody else on this forum said that coal was a kind of black face paint used by fashionable ladies in the 19. century and now long forgotten. It supposedly resembled black pattern on the head of Coal Tit and Kohlmeise = German word for Great Tit.
Cormorant is said to be corruption of Latin Corvus marinus = sea raven.
I find it illogical that people still use names of birds which refer to long obsolete things, words or are simply wrong. For example Stock Dove, Falcated Duck or Caspian Tern.
Few years ago, somebody else on this forum said that coal was a kind of black face paint used by fashionable ladies in the 19. century and now long forgotten. It supposedly resembled black pattern on the head of Coal Tit and Kohlmeise = German word for Great Tit.
Cormorant is said to be corruption of Latin Corvus marinus = sea raven.
I find it illogical that people still use names of birds which refer to long obsolete things, words or are simply wrong. For example Stock Dove, Falcated Duck or Caspian Tern.
Robert Wallace
Well-known member
The Oxford Dictionary of British Bird Names by W.B.Lockwood (1984), paperback 1993 confers.
dantheman
Bah humbug
Anything to do with kohl eyeliner?? (It's pigmented black)
I was quite the scamp in those days.The most interesting things about this thread (apart from wondering if NatureGirl has really been truly resurrected or not) is that Andrew W used to make jokes ()and how long Jurek has also been around ...
MJB
Well-known member
Having read through this thread as a result of NatureGirl's post, I submit another possible origin of the English name of Coal Tit, and that is the established name for black eye-shadow, kohl, "powder used to darken the eyelids, etc", properly of finely ground antimony, 1799, from Arabic kuhl (Wikipedia & OED). However, the use of kohl as a cosmetic is much older, though this recipe for kohl on the face originated from the Arabian Peninsula, and was introduced in the seventh century in North Africa; kohl has also been used in Yemen as a cosmetic for a long time (etymonline.com).
Kohl has been worn traditionally since the Protodynastic Period of Egypt (c. 3100 BCE) by Egyptians of all social classes, originally as protection against eye ailments. There was also a belief that darkening around the eyes would protect one from the harsh rays of the sun (Wikipedia).
English is littered with words whose original meaning and application differ from current practice, especially of homophones or near homophones resulting in confusion in usage (A tradition very much alive and thriving on the internet even in native English speakers, for example "there, their and they're", "its and it's"...
As for selecting the wrong homophone 'coal' for 'kohl', theatre makeup information in UK from the 17th-century onward used both versions, but more confusion within ornithology was to follow, partly driven by Conrad Gessner's 1555 Historia animalium. Gessner noted that the Coal Tit was known as Kohlmeiß in German – the literal equivalent of its English name, though in its modern orthography Kohlmeise it refers to the Great Tit (Parus major). That bird was in Gessner's day usually called Spiegelmeiß ("multicoloured tit"), Brandtmeiß ("burnt tit") or Grosse Meiß ("great tit") in German.
A shift in naming in German followed. Tannen-Maise was attested as the German name for Coal Tit by Johann Leonhard Frisch in the early 18th century, but he also recorded that it was also called Kleine Kohl-Maise ("small coal tit"), whereas Kohl-Maise referred unequivocally to P. major.
Back in UK, some early ornithologists emended the name to 'Cole Tit', but somewhere in my small collection of old bird books, the name 'Kohl Tit' is used, possibly as an alternative. Adding context, the 18th century saw the huge rise in coal mining and at its end, the first known appearance of the word 'kohl' in the OED.
Thus, there is a fair chance that our current usage of 'Coal Tit' did originate from 'kohl', or at least was kidnapped in error...
MJB
PS
alcohol (n.)
1540s: (early 15c. as alcofol), "fine powder produced by sublimation," from Medieval Latin alcohol "powdered ore of antimony," from Arabic al-kuhul "kohl," the fine metallic powder used to darken the eyelids, from kahala "to stain, paint." The al- is the Arabic definite article, "the."
Paracelsus (1493-1541) used the word to refer to a fine powder but also a volatile liquid. By 1670s it was being used in English for "any sublimated substance, the pure spirit of anything," including liquids.
The sense of "intoxicating ingredient in strong liquor" is attested by 1753, short for alcohol of wine, which then was extended to the intoxicating element in fermented liquors. The formerly preferred terms for the substance were rectified spirits or brandy.
I'll drink to that! 🥂
jurek
Well-known member
Bird names were often copied between languages (like here from German and English to Czech) which shows that early naturalists often copied knowledge from others rather than discovered themselves, like this not very fitting bird name.
It makes ill-fitting bird names even less worth preserving.
It makes ill-fitting bird names even less worth preserving.
MJB
Well-known member
wheatearlp
Well-known member
On that basis we'd be changing the names of birds every 50-100 years!
Why change established names just for the sake of it?
jurek
Well-known member
Do you drive an automobile or a car? Do you bake in a range? Or in an oven / a stove and the word range means for you reception of a mobile signal? Language changes and much faster than in 50 years.
Bird names evolve too, except that birders talk remains a jargon and the official names exist as a sort of a living fossil language. Which is double nonsense, because biology developed scientific names especially for the purpose of stability and common understanding. In other areas of life, such jargon or unofficial language simply becomes the official language, and the old names become archaic.
Bird names evolve too, except that birders talk remains a jargon and the official names exist as a sort of a living fossil language. Which is double nonsense, because biology developed scientific names especially for the purpose of stability and common understanding. In other areas of life, such jargon or unofficial language simply becomes the official language, and the old names become archaic.
Harrybongo
Well-known member
Did they have a torch on their head?! 🤔
Harrybongo
Well-known member
I'd think about, going electric, you'll be warmer! 🔥 👍
Tiraya
San Diego CA
In terms of name origin, I assume "coal" tit is hand-in-hand with Parus "ater" (blackish/dark coloured). So, for the dark colouration. Niger was also used regularly for a similar descriptive root.
In modern day, I feel I see more of fuscous (fuscus), tenebrous (tenebrae), or sooty (fulgens) to refer to such features.
In modern day, I feel I see more of fuscous (fuscus), tenebrous (tenebrae), or sooty (fulgens) to refer to such features.
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