OED citation first recorded the appearance of the word in
the 1600’s it was the general name for the young of the feathered tribes, a
young bird, a chicken, eaglet and a nestling. The word ‘bird’ is still retained
in north dial as in ‘a hen and her birds.’
The type of text it first appeared in was the Corpus
Glossary and then after that the West Saxon Gospels: Luke which was some sort
of bible that showed the word bird.
In old English the word ‘bird’ was seen as masculine there
is no corresponding form in any other Germanic language and the etymology is
unknown. There is a suggestion that the word ‘bird’ came from the root “bru”
but this appears to be quite inadmissible.
My word is not gender specific because the word started off
being masculine but in more recent modern years such as today the word ‘bird’
is considered more feminine. Especially in terms of slang in modern day for
example many males tend to use the word ‘bird’ to describe their girlfriend and
this may be considered as being cool.
The word bird has a few meanings nowadays there is the
literal meaning of an animal with feathers, and then there is the slang term
for girlfriend which is also called a ‘bird’. Over time the word has gone
through the process of pejoration, because the word was originally seen as just
a general term for an animal which can be seen as a positive word. However overtime
it has become a negative word as if a woman referred to as a ‘bird’ belongs to
the man which is their partner/boyfriend.
The dictionary definition matches one of the meanings of the
word I know however the more recent slang term is not part of the dictionary
term.
