pigeon: [14] Pigeon comes ultimately from late Latin pīpiō. This meant originally simply ‘young bird’, and was formed from the onomatopoeic base *pīp- (source also of English pipe), which imitated the chirps of young birds. It gradually specialized in use to ‘young pigeon, squab’, and both the general and the specific senses passed via Vulgar Latin *pībiō into Old French as pijon. By the time it arrived in English, however, only the ‘young pigeon’ sense survived, and this was soon overtaken by ‘pigeon’ in general. => pipe
