avadavat

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English

A red avadavat, Amandava amandava

Etymology

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

Noun

avadavat (plural avadavats)

  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.
    • 1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, V.i:
      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.
    • 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:
      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
      And the Muses all chrip to the Avadavat.
    • 1819, John Keats, "The Eve of Saint Mark", (text of unfinished manuscript printed in berefrois, August 13, 2013):
      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,
      And silken-furr’d Angora cat.

Synonyms

References

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