Dictionary

avadavat en · NOUN

Etymology

Variant of earlier amadavat, from Ahmedabad, city in Gujarat, India, from which the bird was imported to Europe.

Meanings

1. Any of various estrildid finches of the genus Amandava, especially the red avadavat, Amandava amandava, of India and Southeast Asia, commonly kept and bred as a cagebird; also known as Java sparrow.
   • And now it has flown to new scenes of delight, Where Venus's pigeons long cooing have sat, While Lesbia's famed sparrow with envy moults white c. 1785, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, "Elegy on the Lamented Death of an Avadavat" (undated manuscript preserved by his wife Elizabeth Ann Linley Sheridan is printed in Clementina Black, The Linleys of Bath (London: Martin Secker, 1911), pp. 180-81
   • SIR OLIVER. What!—has he never transmitted—you—Bullion—Rupees—Pagodas! SURFACE. O Dear Sir—Nothing of the kind—no—no—a few Presents now and then—china, shawls, congo Tea, Avadavats—and indian Crackers—little more, believe me. 1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, V.i:
   • And the warm angled winter screen, On which were many monsters seen, Call’d doves of Siam, Lima mice, And legless birds of Paradise, Macaw, and tender Avadavat, 1819, John Keats, "The Eve of Saint Mark", (text of unfinished manuscript printed in berefrois, August 13, 2013)

Forms

Synonyms

amadavat