Talk:pigeon pair
Initial research for the background of this phrase[edit]
The etymology does not have any references, plus it does not state which culture(s) this folk belief is from, nor the era(s) in which it was believed. The usage seems to include both hyphenated and unhyphenated versions.
I am more used to Wikipedia than Wiktionary (WT:NOT, Wiktionary:Wiktionary for Wikipedians), so I can't get things done in one go. I'm stopping here and hope to come back as long as my real-life limitations don't get in the way. Here are the links that I thought were good as a starting point, and please feel free to finish the work I started by finding and adding the answers to the points I raised in the first paragraph.
- Issue of September 29, 2006 -- Page 3 - word-detective.com
- Origin of Pigeon Pair | Discussion Forum - A Way with Words
Wordnik.com only had this quote, the original of which should be easy to find: "Century Dictionary. noun Twins of opposite sex, boy and girl: so called because pigeons lay two eggs which normally hatch a pair of birds, a male and a female."
I originally found this phrase (including a link to this entry) in a novel translated from the Chinese, so it would be interesting to find out what the original Chinese version stated, in other words whether it used "pigeon pair" or some other idiom: https://www.wuxiaworld.com/novel/tranxending-vision/tv-chapter-417
"This battle of theirs - was it the tempo of the making of a pigeon pair?"
Thanks, Geekdiva (talk) 12:32, 23 April 2019 (UTC)
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Usual sense is two twins, male and female. Newly added sense allows for any male-female sibling pair, even if not twins. Can we confirm please ?Equinox ◑ 03:45, 23 January 2020 (UTC)
- cited Kiwima (talk) 19:13, 23 January 2020 (UTC)
RFV-passed Kiwima (talk) 11:45, 31 January 2020 (UTC)