Other forms: pigeons
A pigeon is the plump grey bird that crowds every city square. Feed the pigeons, a homing pigeon, pigeon droppings.
The city ones are descended from domesticated rock doves that escaped, which is why they nest on ledges — a building is a cliff to them. Homing pigeons navigate over hundreds of miles by means still not fully explained. Dove and pigeon name the same family, with dove the warmer word.
1nounpigeonA plump grey bird common in cities.
“Tourists were feeding the pigeons in the square.”
pigeon is a bird.
Old French pijon comes from Latin pipio, a chirping bird, from pipire, to chirp. The word is imitative at root.
Middle English
pygeoun
English, today
pigeon
From Middle English pygeoun. Middle English pygeoun, borrowed from Old French pyjon, inherited from Latin pipio (“chirping bird”), derived from Latin pipio (“to chirp”), of imitative origin. Partly displaced native dove.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA