Talk:magpie

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Latest comment: 1 year ago by Catonif in topic "chatterbox" as a noun
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What does the "pie" part of magpie mean? That really needs to be made clear in the Etymology. Tooironic 06:35, 16 October 2009 (UTC)Reply

Might be related to (deprecated template usage) pied (coloured in blotches). Just a guess though. Equinox 00:42, 17 October 2009 (UTC)Reply

further to the above, the assertion that 'mag' is derived from Margaret requires documentation too.

This isn’t Wikipedia where everything requires documentation. However, mag is indeed from Margaret, a name long used as a metaphor for women who indulge in idle chatter, and pie is from Old French pie, from Latin pica, from PIE root *(s)peik- (woodpecker, magpie). —Stephen (Talk) 12:06, 23 December 2012 (UTC)Reply

"chatterbox" as a noun[edit]

Is this missing the sense "chatterbox"? The etymology, the verb sense and its presence in Thesaurus:chatterbox seem to hint towards that. Catonif (talk) 19:00, 5 January 2023 (UTC)Reply