English

A white-rumped munia, Lonchura striata

Alternative forms

• minia

Noun

munia ‎(plural munias)

1. Any of certain estrildid finches of the genera Lonchura (most instances) and Amandava (two species).
   • 1895, Eugene William Oates, William Thomas Blanford, Birds, Volume 3, page 88,

     It is said, however, occasionally though rarely to eat insects, and Layard has related how an individual, kept in captivity, killed and swallowed small birds (Munias), its fellow-captives.

   • 2000, Tara Gandhi, Birds and Plant Regeneration, page 76,

     Munias are smaller than sparrows; they have pointed short tails, and live in flocks, building large communal nests shared by several breeding pairs.

   • 2010, Graham R. S. Ritchie, Simon Kirby, 20: A Possible Role for Selective Masking in the Evolution of Complex, Learned Communication Systems, Caroline Lyon, Chrystopher L. Nehaniv, Angelo Cangelosi (editors), Emergence of Communication and Language, page 398,

     Okanoya (2002) argues that the Bengalese finch has a much more 'complex' song than the munia. As mentioned earlier, his measure of complexity is the song linearity. He finds that the average song linearity of the munia is around 0.8 while the Bengalese finch song has a value of around 0.4.

Synonyms

• (finch of genus Lonchura): mannikin, silverbill (generally separate, with some overlap)
• (finch of genus Amandava): avadavat

Derived terms

• black-and-white munia (Lonchura bicolor)
• black-faced munia (Lonchura molucca)
• black-throated munia (Lonchura kelaarti)
• bronze munia (Lonchura cucullata)
• brown-backed munia (Lonchura nigriceps)
• chestnut munia (Lonchura atricapilla)
• cream-bellied munia (Lonchura pallidiventer)
• dusky munia (Lonchura fuscans)
• five-coloured munia (Lonchura quinticolor)
• green munia (Amandava formosa)
• Javan munia (Lonchura leucogastroides)
• magpie munia (Lonchura fringilloides)
• pale-headed munia (Lonchura pallida)
• red munia (Amandava amandava)
• scaly-breasted munia (Lonchura punctulata)
• streak-headed munia (Lonchura tristissima)
• tricoloured munia (Lonchura malacca)
• white-bellied munia (Lonchura leucogastra)
• white-capped munia (Lonchura ferruginosa)
• white-headed munia (Lonchura maja)
• white-rumped munia (Lonchura striata)
• white-throated munia (Lonchura malabarica)

Finnish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈmuni.ɑ]
• Rhymes: -uniɑ
• Hyphenation: mu‧ni‧a

Etymology

From the noun muna ‎(“egg”).

Noun

munia

1. Partitive plural form of muna.

Verb

munia

1. To lay an egg.
2. (colloquial) To let somebody wait without any good reason, to loiter or to be sluggish (normally only in irritated questions).

   • Mitä te oikein munitte siellä?

Conjugation

Anagrams

• imuna, mauin, minua, muina

Latin

Etymology

Like mūnus ‎(“service”), it is derived from Proto-Indo-European *moy-nós, from *mey- ‎(“change, swap”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈmuː.ni.a/

Noun

mūnia n pl ‎(genitive mūniōrum); second declension

1. (plural only) duties, functions

Inflection

In Classical Latin, only the nominative and accusative are attested. Second declension.

References

• munia in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• munia in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “munia”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.