blackbird

From Middle English blakebird, blacbrid (“ouzel; Eurasian blackbird”), equivalent to black +‎ bird.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈblakbəːd/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈblækˌbɚd/

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blackbird (plural blackbirds)

1. A common true thrush, Turdus merula, found in woods and gardens over much of Eurasia, and introduced elsewhere.
2. A variety of New World birds of the family Icteridae (26 species of icterid bird).
3. (slang, derogatory, historical, among slavers and pirates) A native of the South Pacific islands.

• (Turdus merula): common blackbird; Eurasian blackbird; merle, merl; ouzel
• (Icteridae): icterid

blackbird (third-person singular simple present blackbirds, present participle blackbirding, simple past and past participle blackbirded)

1. To enslave someone, especially through chicanery or force
   • 2005, Wal F. Bird, Me No Go Mally Bulla: Recruiting and Blackbirding in the Queensland Labour Trade 1863–1906, published by Ginninderra Press, →ISBN, →ISBN
   • 2000, Kate Fortune and Brij V. Lal, The Pacific Islands: An Encyclopedia – Volume 1, published by University of Hawaiʻi, p. 208, →ISBN

     “At the same time, island communities — especially in coastal areas, where the effect of population loss was often enormous — sometimes retaliated against blackbirding raids.”

• ictericus
• merula
• merulus

• blackbird on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Icterid on Wikipedia.Wikipedia