Why are parakeets also called budgies?

Search: budgie; parakeet etym; budgerigar etym

Why: My first pets were parakeets named Sunny and Coco, and Daniel's first pet was a budgie named Billy. Those are the same animal. They even had that awesome thing at the Memphis Zoo where all the parakeets come sit on your seedy stick. Lisa hated it.

Answer: One site for pets says:

"Budgerigar" (or "budgie") is a more specific name than "parakeet," because parakeets are a large group of small parrots, including ringneck parakeets, Quaker parakeets, monk parakeets, etc.

The dictionary says:

• parakeet - also paraquet, paroquet, parrakeet, parroket, parroquet; from Middle French paroquet, apparently alteration of perrot, "parrot" - Pierre "Peter" (wtf)
• budgerigar - a parakeet

Possible origins of the word "budgerigar:

• A mispronunciation or alteration of Gamilaraay (a Pama-Nyungan language of the Wiradhuric subgroup of East Australia) word fgidjirrigaa
  
• From the Australian slang word budgery, "good"
• A compound of boojery or budgery, Australian slang for "good," and gar "Cockatoo"
• The term Betcherrygah was used by indigenous people of the Liverpool plains in New South Wales

The genus name Melopsittacus comes from Greek: "melodious parrot." The species name undulatus is Latin or "undulated" or "wave-patterned."

Sounds like those birds just get around.

Source: World Book Dictionary, BudgiePlace.com, Wikipedia

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