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[14] The characteristic feature of pies in the Middle Ages was that their filling consisted of a heterogeneous mixture of ingredients (as opposed to pasties, which had just one main ingredient). This has led etymologists to suggest that pies were named after magpies (or pies, as they were originally called), from a supposed resemblance between the miscellaneous contents of pies and the assortment of objects collected by thieving magpies. Although pie has now been superseded by magpie as the bird-name, it survives in pied [14] (etymologically ‘coloured black and white like a magpie’) and piebald [16] (etymologically ‘streaked with black and white’).
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