Other forms: finches
A finch is a small seed-eating bird with a stubby strong beak. A chaffinch, finches at the feeder, a flock of finches.
The beak is the whole story: its shape matches the seeds a species eats, and the finches of the Galapagos gave Darwin the clearest evidence he had of how species adapt. Beak shape in those birds has been measured changing within a few generations after a drought.
1nounfinchA small seed-eating bird with a stubby beak.
“A little finch was cracking sunflower seeds at the bird feeder.”
finch is a bird.
Old English finc names the bird, from a Germanic root probably imitating its call. German Fink is the same word.
Middle English
fynch
English, today
finch
From Middle English fynch. From Middle English fynch, from Old English finċ, from Proto-West Germanic finki, from Proto-Germanic finkiz (compare Dutch vink, German Fink), from Proto-Indo-European (s)pingos (“chaffinch”). Compare Welsh pinc (“finch”), Ancient Greek σπίγγος (“chaffinch”), Russian пе́нка (“wren”), Sanskrit फिङ्गक (“drongo, shrike”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA