oriole

noun

1. any of several usually brightly colored, passerine birds of the family Oriolidae, of the Old World.Compare golden oriole.
2. any of several brightly colored passerine birds of the family Icteridae, of the New World.

noun

1. any songbird of the mainly tropical Old World family Oriolidae, such as Oriolus oriolus (golden oriole), having a long pointed bill and a mostly yellow-and-black plumage
2. any American songbird of the family Icteridae, esp those of the genus Icterus, such as the Baltimore oriole, with a typical male plumage of black with either orange or yellow

n.1776, from French oriol “golden oriole,” Old Provençal auriol, from Medieval Latin oryolus, from Latin aureolus “golden,” from PIE *aus- “gold” (see aureate). Originally in reference to the golden oriole (Oriolus galbula), a bird of black and yellow plumage that summers in Europe (but is uncommon in England). Applied from 1791 to the unrelated but similarly colored North American species Icterus baltimore.