An archaic or obsolete spelling of 'bird' used in Middle English texts.
This is an earlier form of 'bird,' reflecting Middle English orthography when the word was spelled with a final 'e' as was common before modern English spelling was standardized around the 15th-16th centuries.
The transition from 'birde' to 'bird' happened during the Great Vowel Shift and the standardization of printing—when Gutenberg's press made books uniform, spelling became fixed, and variants like 'birde' disappeared within a couple of generations, showing how technology shapes language.
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