Wren
Etymology and usage

The English name "wren" derives from Middle English: wrenne and Old English: wrænna, attested (as wernnaa) very early, in an eighth-century gloss. It is cognate to Old High German: wrendo, wrendilo, and Icelandic: rindill (the latter two including an additional diminutive -ilan suffix). The Icelandic name is attested in Old Icelandic (Eddaic) as rindilþvari. This points to a Common Germanic name wrandjan-, but the further etymology of the name is unknown.

The wren was also known as the kuningilin ('kinglet') in Old High German, a name associated with the fable of the election of the "king of birds". The bird that could fly to the highest altitude would be made king. The eagle outflew all other birds, but he was beaten by a small bird that had hidden in his plumage. This fable was already known to Aristotle (Historia Animalium 9.11) and Pliny (Natural History 10.95), and was taken up by medieval authors such as Johann Geiler von Kaisersberg, but it most likely originally concerned kinglets (Regulus, such as the goldcrest) and was apparently motivated by the yellow "crown" sported by these birds (a point noted already by Ludwig Uhland). The confusion stemmed in part from the similarity and consequent interchangeability of the Ancient Greek words for the wren (βασιλεύς basileus, 'king') and the crest (βασιλίσκος basiliskos, 'kinglet'), and the legend's reference to the "smallest of birds" becoming king likely led the title to be transferred to the equally tiny wren. In modern German, the name of the bird is Zaunkönig ('king of the fence (or hedge)') and in Dutch, the name is winterkoning ('king of winter').

The family name Troglodytidae is derived from troglodyte, which means 'cave-dweller'. Wrens get their scientific name from the tendency of some species to forage in dark crevices.

The name "wren" is also ascribed to other families of passerine birds throughout the world. In Europe, kinglets are commonly known as "wrens", with the common firecrest and goldcrest known as the "fire-crested wren" and "golden-crested wren", respectively.

The 27 Australasian "wren" species in the family Maluridae are unrelated, as are the New Zealand wrens in the family Acanthisittidae, the antbirds in the family Thamnophilidae, and the Old World babblers of the family Timaliidae.
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