spruggien.
/ˈsprʌɡi/, U.S. /ˈsprəɡi/, Scottish English /ˈsprʌɡɪ/ Scottish and English regional (chiefly north-eastern).
The house sparrow. Cf. sprug n., spuggy n.
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the world > animals > birds > order Passeriformes (singing) > seed eaters > family Ploceidae > [noun] > subfamily Ploceinae (weaver) > genus Passer > passer domesticus (sparrow)
sparrowc725
phipc1400
Philipa1500
house sparrow1653
spug1808
sprug1815
spruggie1845
spurgie1849
spadger1862
spur1866
spuggy1874
spurg1882
gutter-bird1896
sparrer1935
1845 T. Denham Poems & Snatches of Prose 36 My brains I've gi'en them oot to nurse, I'm like a trappit spruggie.
?1870 C. Urquhart Poems & Songs 61 Ha, Spruggie, whar ye noo?.. O, puir drouked sparra.
1904 M. Blair Paisley Shawl viii. 60 The quieter draw-boys were sure to have a nest of sparrows, or ‘spruggies’, as they called them.
1975 E. F. Catford Edinburgh ix. 106 The Canongate urchins would run after him, calling ‘Frenchy, Frenchy, dinna shoot the spruggies’—‘spruggies’ being ‘sparrows’.
2011 Hull Daily Mail (Nexis) 2 Apr. 14 We called sparrows ‘spruggies’ and starlings ‘jibbies’.
2018 @wellstedmatthew 29 May in twitter.com (O.E.D. Archive) I just broke up a fight between a sparrow and a blackbird. The blackbird has the upper hand I think so the spruggie looked well relieved.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2019; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1845