bunting

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈbʌntɪŋ/
• Rhymes: -ʌntɪŋ

Bunting on display for day 3 of the 2012 Olympic torch relay, in Devon, UK

Possibly from dialect bunting (“sifting flour”), from Middle English bonten (“to sift”), hence the material used for that purpose. Possibly from Germanic bundt (“to bind or tie together”).

bunting (countable and uncountable, plural buntings)

1. Strips of material used as festive decoration, especially in the colours of the national flag.
2. (nautical) A thin cloth of woven wool from which flags are made; it is light enough to spread in a gentle wind but resistant to fraying in a strong wind.
3. Flags considered as a group.

A black-headed bunting (Emberiza melanocephala)

Wikispecies

[From circa 1300], from bountyng, of unknown origin. Possibly from buntin (“plump”) (compare baby bunting, Scots buntin (“short and thick”), Welsh bontin (“rump”) and bontinog (“big-arsed”)), or a double diminutive of French bon. Or possibly a reference to speckled plumage, from an unrecorded Old English word akin to German bunt (“multi-coloured”), Dutch bont.[1]

bunting (plural buntings)

1. Any of various songbirds, mostly of the genus Emberiza, having short bills and brown or gray plumage.

• black-headed bunting (Emberiza melanocephala)
• corn bunting (Emberiza calandra)
• indigo bunting (Passerina cyanea)
• painted bunting (Passerina ciris or Calcarius pictus)
• reed bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus)
• snow bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis)

bunting

1. present participle of bunt

bunting (countable and uncountable, plural buntings)

1. A pushing action.
2. A strong timber; a stout prop.
3. (obsolete) An old boys' game, played with sticks and a small piece of wood.