Etymology Dictionary

YELLOW-HAMMER, YELLOW-AMMER,  a songbird, named from its yellow colour.  (E.)   In Ash's Dict., ed. 1775.   Beyond doubt, the h is an ignorant insertion, due to substitution of a known for an unknown word, irrespective of the sense.   Yet the name is E., and very old.   The former part of the word (yellow) is explained; the latter part is the A.S. amore.   In a list of birds, we find:  'Scorellus, amore,' Wright's Voc. i. 281, col. 1.   Cognate words occur both in Du. and G. + O. Du. emmerick, emmerlinck, 'a kind of merlin or a hawke,' Hexham. + Low G. geel-emerken, a yellow-ammer. + G. gelb-ammer, gold-ammer, yellow-ammer, gold-ammer; also emmerling, a yellow-ammer.   β. The A.S. amore (for amora, like O. Du. emmer and G. ammer) denotes an agent, and is formed from the base AM.   The most likely sense is 'chirper;' since there are several traces of the ✔AM, to sound, make a noise; e.g. Skt. am, to sound, Icel. emja, to howl, O.H.G. ámar, G. jammer, lamentation.   ¶ It is probable that ousel may be similarly explained; the O.H.G. for ousel is written both amsalá and amelsá, where -salá, -elsá, are mere suffixes, denoting the agent.   Hence A.S. am-ore and ó-sle (= am-sala) contain precisely the same base AM, probably sued in both words in the same sense.