Etymology

• Onomatopoeic of the humming sound made by the rapidly moving wings. See hum. See below Quotations

Noun

1. Any of various small American birds in the family Trochilidae that have the ability to hover.

Quotations

1857 Thoreau, Henry David, journal entry, May 29, 1857. From Thoreau on Birds: notes on New England birds from the Journals of Henry David Thoreau, Boston: Beacon Press, 1993, p238. (Originally published as the anthology Thoreau's bird-lore, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1910, edited by Francis H. Allen.)

• Soon I hear the low all-pervading hum of an approaching hummingbird circling above the rock, [...]

Related terms

• trochilidine