pigeon pair

English

Etymology

From a folk belief that pigeons raise two eggs at the same time, a male and a female.

Noun

pigeon pair (plural pigeon pairs)

1. A pair of twins, one male and one female.
2. Two siblings, one male and one female.
   • 2014, Colleen McCullough, Bittersweet, page 71:

     Oh, please not twins! Just a pigeon-pair, a son and then a daughter.

   • 2014, Margaret Dwyer, Jewels Along The Newell, page 62:

     Their first child, a son, was Albert Lewis, born 1893, and he became known to all of us who can remember this wonderful man, as Lew Davey. The second child was a daughter, Cora Annie, born 1895. […] There were two other children (both stillborn) and, to quote Lew, “It is sad to remember that what should have been a family of four, ended up a “pigeon pair”.

   • 2018, Tom Treanor, One Damn Thing After Another:

     “I 'ave a wife and pigeon pair,” he said. “What's a pigeon pair?” I asked him. “Don'cher know a pigeon pair? That's one of each. A pigeon pair, we calls it at 'ome.