English

Alternative forms

• Collin

Proper noun

Colin ‎(plural Colins)

1. A male given name
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene: VI:x:16:

     That iolly shepheard, which there piped, was / Poore Colin Clout (who knowes not Colin Clout?)

   • 1992 Howard B. Means, Colin Powell, Donald J. Fine (1992), ISBN 1556113358, page 49:

     "My parents," Powell wrote, "were British subjects, and they named me Colin (KAH-lin). Being British, they knew very well how the name was supposed to be pronounced. But when I was a young boy, there was a famous American World War II hero whose name became very popular in the streets of New York City. He was Capt. Colin P. Kelly Jr. He was called KOH-lin. My friends in the streets of the South Bronx, who heard Captain Kelly's name pronounced in the radio and by their parents and other adults, began to refer to me by the same pronunciation.

2. A rather rare patronymic surname​.

Usage notes

• Popular given name in the U.K. in the mid-twentieth century.

Related terms

• surnames: Collins, Collinson, Collis, Collison

French

Etymology

From a medieval diminutive of Nicolas.

Proper noun

Colin

1. A rare male given name.
2. A common patronymic surname​.

English

Noun

colin ‎(plural colins)

1. The American quail or bobwhite, or related species.
   • 1859, Samuel Griswold Goodrich, Illustrated natural history of the animal kingdom (volume 2, page 244)

     To this belongs the Colin or Quail of New England and Partridge of the South […]

   • 1923, Thomas Alfred Coward, Bird haunts and nature memories (page 206)

     Many efforts have been made to improve and increase the variety of our game stock, but whereas the Barbary partridge, the willow grouse, the colin, bob-white, button quail, and even tinamou have been tried and failed […]

Catalan

Verb

colin

1. third-person plural present subjunctive form of colar
2. third-person plural imperative form of colar

French

Noun

colin m ‎(plural colins)

1. coalfish

Synonyms

• lieu noir