The English word pigeon entered the language in the 14th century from Old French pijon, meaning a young dove or squab. The Old French word derives from Late Latin pipionem, the accusative form of pipio, meaning a chirping or peeping bird, a nestling. The Late Latin word is formed from the classical Latin verb pipire, meaning to chirp, to cheep, or to peep — an onomatopoeic formation imitating the high-pitched sounds made by young birds in the nest.
The semantic development from nestling to adult bird is a common pattern in bird nomenclature. The original meaning of pigeon was specifically a young bird, a squab, distinguished from the adult. Over time, as the word replaced older terms, it generalized to denote the bird at any age. This process was largely complete by the 16th century in
The Latin onomatopoeic verb pipire produced several other English words. Pipe (originally a tube-shaped musical instrument, named for its peeping or whistling sound) derives from the same root through Old English pipe, from Latin pipa (a reed pipe). Pipit (a small songbird of the genus Anthus) is a modern onomatopoeic formation echoing the same imitative tradition, though it was coined independently in the 18th century from the bird's call.
English has two common words for members of the family Columbidae: pigeon (from French/Latin) and dove (from Old Norse dufa, possibly meaning diver or dusky one, from Proto-Germanic *dubon). The two words are often used for the same birds, but a consistent if informal pattern of differentiation has emerged. Dove tends to refer to smaller, more graceful species and carries connotations of peace, purity, and gentleness — as in the dove of peace, turtledove, and the use of dove in political discourse for those favoring diplomacy over military action. Pigeon refers to the larger
The rock pigeon's relationship with humans is among the oldest of any bird species. Domestication of pigeons dates to at least 3000 BCE in Mesopotamia, and possibly much earlier. Pigeons were kept for food (squab), for their droppings (used as fertilizer), for message-carrying (homing pigeons, used from antiquity through both World Wars), and for sport (pigeon racing, pigeon fancying). Charles Darwin was an avid pigeon breeder and drew extensively on the artificial selection of pigeon varieties to illustrate his theory of natural selection in On the Origin of
The figurative uses of pigeon in English are numerous. A pigeon (or pigeon-drop) in slang is a dupe or an easy victim of a confidence trick — a sense attested from the 16th century, possibly from the ease with which young, naive birds can be caught. Pigeon-toed (walking with feet turned inward) refers to the inward-pointing gait of pigeons. Pigeon-hole (a small compartment for sorting letters or papers) takes its name from the small openings
The distinction between pigeon and the homophonous pidgin (a simplified contact language) is purely coincidental. Pidgin is generally believed to derive from a Chinese pronunciation of the English word business, and it has no etymological connection to the bird. The two words are frequently confused in spelling but are entirely unrelated in origin.