siskin

From dialectal German Sisschen, Zeischen, diminutive form of Middle High German zisec, apparently ultimately from Proto-Slavic *čižь (compare e.g. Polish czyżyk).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪskɪn/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪskɪn

siskin (plural siskins)

1. A small green and yellow European finch, Carduelis spinus spinus or Carduelis spinus, now Spinus spinus.
   • 2001, WG Sebald, translated by Anthea Bell, Austerlitz, Penguin, published 2011, page 2:

     I sat there on a bench in dappled shade, beside an aviary full of brightly feathered finches and siskins fluttering about.

   • 2013 January, Paul Bartell, Ashli Moore, “Avian Migration: The Ultimate Red-Eye Flight”, in American Scientist‎, volume 101, number 1, archived from the original on 5 March 2016, pages 47–48:

     Many of these classic methods are still used, with some modern improvements. For example, with the aid of special microphones and automated sound detection software, ornithologists recently reported […] that pine siskins (Spinus pinus) undergo an irregular, nomadic type of nocturnal migration.

2. Any of various similar birds in subfamily Carduelinae, principally in the genus Spinus.

• (Spinus spinus): aberdevine, Eurasian siskin

• Carduelinae on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Spinus on Wikispecies.Wikispecies

• serin

• kiss-in, kissin', nkisis, siniks