Did You Know?
To many people, the noisy black and white birds that go by the scientific name Pica pica -- better known as magpies -- are nothing but pests. But the Latin root that was adopted for their name isn't a linguistic nuisance; it played an important role in the development of "piebald." The "pie" of "piebald" ("pie" is another name for a magpie) derives from "pica," which is Latin for "magpie." The other part of "piebald" comes from the word "bald," which can mean "marked with white"; it can also be found in "skewbald," an adjective used to describe animals marked with patches of white and any other color but black.