the.com/redbreast
The robin's PR name — same bird, better marketing.
means An old name for the robin, used especially in traditional rhymes and tales, pointing straight at the orange-red feathers on its chest and throat.
from A plain Anglo-Saxon compound — 'red' plus 'breast' — doing exactly what it says on the tin. It shows up in English folk tradition and verse (including the old 'Robin Redbreast' rhymes) as a descriptive nickname that eventually got shortened in everyday speech to just 'robin,' the name winning out over the description.
- actual color
- orange, before orange existed as a word
- name origin
- named before orange was a common color term
- whiskey homonym
- also a beloved Irish single pot still whiskey
- territorial myth
- robins attack red objects, not just rivals