A person who has been imprisoned or is frequently in jail. The term carries informal and often derogatory connotations.
Compound word from 'jail' and 'bird', first appearing in English in the 17th century. The 'bird' component likely refers to the caged nature of prisoners, drawing an analogy between confined criminals and caged birds.
The metaphor of 'jailbird' reflects how humans naturally compare imprisonment to the caging of wild animals - we 'fly the coop' when escaping and are 'caged' when confined. This bird imagery appears across many languages when discussing freedom and captivity, suggesting something universal about how we conceptualize liberty.
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