Also 4 bountyng, 5 buntynge; cf. the variants BUNKIN, BUNTYLE, BUNTLIN. [Origin unknown: Skeat suggests comparison with BUNT v.2, Sc. buntin short and thick, plump (see 3), BUNT sb.5, Welsh bontin the rump, bontinog large-buttocked.]
1. The English name of a group of insessorial birds, the Emberizinæ, a sub-family of Fringillidæ allied to the larks. The chief species are the Common B. (E. miliaris), also called Corn B.; Yellow B. (E. citrinella) = YELLOW-HAMMER; Black-headed B.; Reed B. (E. schœniclus); Snow B. (Plectrophanes nivalis), a bird inhabiting the arctic regions, and visiting Britain in the winter; Rice B. (Dolichonyx oryzivorus) = BOBOLINK.
c. 1300. in Wright, Lyric P., XI. ix. 40. Ich wold ich were a threstelcok, A bountyng other a lavercok.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 56. Buntynge, byrde, pratellus.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, II. v. 7. I tooke this Larke for a bunting.
1655. Moufet & Bennet, Health’s Improv. (1746), 188. Buntings feed chiefly upon little Worms.
1789. G. White, Selborne, xii. (1853), 57. The bunting does not leave this country in the winter.
1878. Markham, Gt. Frozen Sea, xxiv. Great excitement was caused by the appearance of a snow bunting.
2. The grey shrimp (Crangon vulgaris).
1836. Scenes Commerce by Land & S., 92. Red shrimps, white shrimps, and buntings, or grey shrimps, of which the last are most esteemed for their flavour.
3. A term of endearment: in ‘baby bunting,’ the meaning (if there be any at all) may possibly be as in Jamieson’s ‘buntin, short and thick, as a buntin brat, a plump child.’
1665. Davenant, Wits, III. i. Bunting [to the speaker’s wife] in very deed, You are to blame.
Nursery Rhyme. Bye, baby bunting, Father’s gone a hunting.
