Wren
/rɛn/noun
A small brown songbird with a short tail and loud, trilling song.
Did you know?Wren is one of the oldest bird names in English, inherited from Old English and ultimately from a Germanic root that also gave Old Norse *rani* and related forms, showing how long humans have been naming this little singer.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*wrainiz / *wraniz
“A wren or small singing bird (reconstructed ancestral form).”
Old English
OE
wrenna
“A wren, the small brown bird.”
Middle English
ME
wrenne
“A wren.”
Modern English
English
wren
“A small passerine bird with a loud, complex song.”