merlette

English

Etymology
A merlette in French heraldry

From Late Middle English [Term?], from Anglo-Norman merlet (from merle (“blackbird”) + -et (“suffix forming a noun”)), or from Middle French merlette (“little blackbird; merlette (heraldic charge)”) (from merle (“blackbird”)—formerly a feminine noun) + -ette (“diminutive suffix for a feminine noun”).[1] Merle is from Latin merula (“blackbird”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ems- (“black; blackbird”).

Pronunciation

Noun

merlette (plural merlettes)

  1. (heraldry) In French heraldry, a depiction of a mythological bird without beak or feet.

See also

References
  1. “merlette”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

French

Etymology

From merle +‎ -ette, literally “little blackbird”, the word for the male blackbird being mostly female until the 16th century (a male: "une merle", a little male: "une merlette").[1]

Meaning 2 (hen blackbird) appears in 1842.[2][3]

Pronunciation
  • Audio(file)

Noun

merlette f (plural merlettes)

  1. (heraldry) the merlette
  2. female blackbird
    Synonym: merlesse

Further reading
  • Trévoux (1771) Dictionnaire universel françois et latin‎
  • Adolphe Hatzfeld, Arsène Darmesteter, Antoine Thomas (1890) Dictionnaire général de la langue française du commencement du XVIIe siècle à nos jours‎
  1. César-Pierre Richelet (1759) Dictionnaire de la langue françoise‎
  2. “merlette”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
  3. Complément du dictionnaire de l’Académie Française‎, Paris: Firmin-Didot, 1842, page 776
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