yeorling

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

yeorling (plural yeorlings)

1. (Scotland) The yellowhammer.
   • 1905, Lady Catherine Henrietta Milnes Gaskell, Spring in a Shropshire Abbey, page 179:

     I asked Thady a minute later what nests he knew of. "Galore," he answered, grinning. And then proceeded to enumerate them : " A lintie (a linnet), a green grosbeak (greenfinch), a Harry redcap (goldfinch), a yellow yeorling by the roadside, a scobby (chaffinch), a lavrock (skylark), a cushie-doo (a wood pigeon), a cutty wren (common wren), a nanny washtail (pied wagtail) in the rocks, and two tom-titers of sorts.

   • 1907, Country Life - Volume 21, page 376:

     The brock, the toad, and the yellow yeorling Get a drap o' the de'il's bluid ilka May morning.

   • 1962, Henrietta Buckmaster, All the Living: A Novel of One Year in the Life of William Shakespeare, page 360:

     Then they listened to a yeorling and Will taught the child its song, "A little bit of bread and no che-e-ese.

• gyroline, legionry