bunting

Meanings

Noun

• Strips of material used as festive decoration, especially in the colours of the national flag.
• A thin cloth of woven wool from which flags are made; it is light enough to spread in a gentle wind but resistant to fraying in a strong wind.
• Flags considered as a group.
• Any of various songbirds, mostly of the genus Emberiza, having short bills and brown or gray plumage.
• A warm, hooded infant garment, as outerwear or sleepwear, similar to a sleeper or sleepsack; especially as baby bunting or bunting bag.
• A pushing action.
• A strong timber; a stout prop.
• An old boys' game, played with sticks and a small piece of wood.

Verb

• Present participle of bunt

Origin

• Possibly from dialect bunting, from Middle English bonten ("to sift"), hence the material used for that purpose.
• Possibly from Germanic bundt.
• From Middle English bunting, bountyng, buntynge (also as Middle English buntyle), of uncertain origin. Possibly a reference to speckled plumage, from an unrecorded Middle English *bunt akin to Dutch bont, Middle Low German bunt, bont, German bunt -ing.
• 1922, apparently from Scots buntin ("plump, short and thick (esp. of children)"), itself an old term of endearment for children (1660s); the sense “plump” dates to the 1500s,