Hummingbird

Pronunciation

Alternative forms

humming bird, humming-bird

Origin

Onomatopoeic of the humming sound made by the rapidly moving wings. See hum. See below.

Full definition of hummingbird

Noun

hummingbird

(plural hummingbirds)

Any of various small American birds in the family Trochilidae that have the ability to hover.

1857 Thoreau, Henry David, journal entry, May 29, 1857. From Thoreau on Birds: notes on New England birds from the Journals of Henry David Thoreau, Boston: Beacon Press, 1993, p238. (Originally published as the anthology Thoreau's bird-lore, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1910, edited by Francis H. Allen.)Soon I hear the low all-pervading hum of an approaching hummingbird circling above the rock, ...

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