Uncertain. Probablyimitative of the bird’s call, with influence frompetty(“small”) and eitherchap(“jaw; bill of a bird”) orchap(“person”).^[1] Alternatively, perhaps directly frompetty (in turn fromMiddle Englishpety(“tiny”)) andchaps(“jaws”).^[2] Attested from the 1670s.

pettychaps (pluralpettychaps)

1. Any of severalspecies of smallEuropeanpasserinesongbirds, including thewillow warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus), thechiffchaffs (Phylloscopus spp.), and thewestern Orphean warbler (Sylvia hortensis).

• “pettichaps,n.”, inLexico,Dictionary.com;Oxford University Press,2019–2022.
• William Dwight Whitney,Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “pettichaps”, inThe Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.:The Century Co.,→OCLC.
• Garden warbler on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Sylvioidea on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Category:Sylvioidea on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

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