robin

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Folk traditions about the robin are contradictory; some link it with death, others see it as a sacred bird, cheerful and friendly to humans. The idea that a robin pecking on a window or entering the house brings death has been recorded in many areas from the early 19th century onwards, and is still sometimes found; a Gloucestershire girl in the 1950s said it was a death-sign to receive a Christmas card with a robin on it (Folklore 66 (1955), 324), and a woman in Hull in the 1990s always threw away such cards from mixed packs (Gill, 1993: 67). However, the great popularity of robins on Christmas cards from Victorian times onwards shows this fear must be rare.

A belief first recorded in the late 16th century may explain the link with death. It was thought that if a robin found someone lying dead, it would cover the face (or even the whole corpse) with moss, leaves, or flowers, being a ‘charitable’ bird, ‘that loves mankind both alive and dead’. There are many literary allusions to this idea, and it forms the climax of the ballad of ‘The Babes in the Wood’.

The robin, and his alleged ‘wife’ the wren, were sacred, according to well-known rhymes:

The robin redbreast and the wren
Are God Almighty's cock and hen.

and:

Hurt a robin or a wran,
Never prosper, boy or man.

A pious legend, probably from medieval times, says the bird got its red breast when it injured itself in trying to pluck out a thorn from Christ's crown of thorns; alternatively, that its feathers got singed as it carried water to souls in the fire of Purgatory. Either way, it was blessed by God for its kindness.

To kill or injure a robin, or steal its eggs, was regarded as wicked, and sure to bring bad luck; 19th-century sources speak of cows giving bloody milk, piglets dying, or buildings catching fire, while the Farmer's Weekly in 1974 quotes a warning that ‘you'll end up with a broken leg or arm’. In Yorkshire in the 1880s, a boy who took a robin's eggs would be surrounded by other boys, pointing, hissing and slapping at him, and chanting

Robin takker, robbin takker,
Sin, sin, sin!

Swainson, 1885: 12-18; Roud, 2003: 379-81; Opie and Tatem, 1989: 328-40.

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IN BRIEF: n. - Large American thrush having a rust-red breast and abdomen; Small Old World songbird with a reddish breast.

The robin is an early sign of spring.

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1. a bird.
2. a phytotoxin in the plant robinia pseudoacacia.

For a list of words related to robin, see:

• Passerine songbirds

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See words rhyming with "robin."

  See crossword solutions for the clue Robin.

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - [zool.] rødhals, rødkælk, vandredrossel (amer.)

idioms:

• robin redbreast    [zool.] rødhals, rødkælk, vandredrossel (amer.)

Nederlands (Dutch)
roodborstje

Français (French)
n. - rouge-gorge, (US) merle migrateur

idioms:

• robin redbreast    rouge-gorge

Deutsch (German)
n. - Rotkehlchen, Wanderdrossel

idioms:

• robin redbreast    Rotkehlchen

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (ορνιθ.) κοκκινολαίμης

idioms:

• robin redbreast    κοκκινολαίμης, κοκκινότσιχλα

Italiano (Italian)
pettirosso

idioms:

• robin redbreast    pettirosso

Português (Portuguese)
n. - pequena ave com pescoço vermelho

idioms:

• robin redbreast    papo-roxo (Ornit.)

Русский (Russian)
малиновка

idioms:

• robin redbreast    малиновка

Español (Spanish)
n. - petirrojo

idioms:

• robin redbreast    ceón, tordo norteamericano, pechicolorado

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - (zool) rödhake, (zool) rödtrast

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
知更鸟, 欧亚鸲

idioms:

• robin redbreast    知更鸟, 欧亚鸲

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 知更鳥, 歐亞鴝

idioms:

• robin redbreast    知更鳥, 歐亞鴝

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 유럽 물새, 로빈, 개똥지빠귀

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - ヨーロッパコマドリ, コマツグミ, 駒鳥

idioms:

• robin redbreast    ヨーロッパコマドリ, コマツグミ

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) طائر ابو الحنا‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮אדום-החזה (ציפור)‬

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