great spotted woodpecker

en-noun

great spotted woodpecker (plural great spotted woodpeckers)

/ˈɡɹeɪt ˈspɒtəd ˈwʊdpɛkəɹ/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-great spotted woodpecker.wav

Dendrocopos major
Dendrocopos major#Translingual

A species of woodpecker, Dendrocopos major.


lesser spotted woodpecker

lesser spotted woodpecker (plural lesser spotted woodpeckers)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-lesser spotted woodpecker.wav

Dryobates minor
Dryobates minor#Translingual

Any of species Dryobates minor of woodpeckers, principally of cooler regions of Eurasia.


black woodpecker

black woodpecker (plural black woodpeckers)

Dryocopus martius
Dryocopus martius#Translingual

Any of species Dryocopus martius of woodpeckers (family Picidae).

tó wónaanídę́ę́ʼ tsįįłkaałiizhiin bitsiitʼáád halchíʼígíí


woodpecker

From wood + pecker. Compare Middle English wod spek (“woodpecker”), Middle English wodehake (“woodpecker”), Middle English wodewale (“woodpecker”). Displaced speight.

On its summit towered aloft the fir tree which has often been referred to, like a mighty mast, full of woodpeckers' holes.

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 89:

His skin was scarlet like the head of the green woodpecker.

1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros, London: Jonathan Cape, page 19:

An adult female of this rare woodpecker was taken at 6,000 feet in April 1925 near Chingchuan in the forests of northern Szechuan.

1928 August, Outram Bangs, James L. Peters, “Birds Collected by Dr. Joseph F. Rock in Western Kansu and Eastern Tibet”, in Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy, volume LXVIII, number 7, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard College, →OCLC, page 333:

Birdwatchers would enjoy a host of sparrows, a herd of swans, a descent of woodpeckers, a herd of wrens, and mutation of thrushes.

1984, Virginia Wildlife, volume 45, Virginia Commission of Game and Inland Fisheries:

Any bird of species-rich family Picidae, with a strong pointed beak suitable for pecking holes in wood.


green woodpecker

green woodpecker (plural green woodpeckers)

Picus viridis
Picus viridis#Translingual

Any of species Picus viridis of European woodpeckers.


redhead

Aythya americana
Aythya americana#Translingual

A North American duck (Aythya americana) highly esteemed as a game bird.


sprite

→ Japanese: スプライト (supuraito)

→ Russian: спрайт (sprajt)

From Middle English sprite, spryt, spreyte, from Old French esprit (“spirit”), from Latin spiritus. Doublet of spirit, spiritus, spirytus, spright, and esprit.
(computer graphics): First used by Danny Hillis at Texas Instruments in the late 1970s.
(meteorology): An acronym for Stratospheric Perturbations Resulting from Intense Thunderstorm Electrification.

doublet

(obsolete) Alternative form of spright (“frame of mind, disposition”)


knag

From Middle English knagge. Cognate with German Low German Knagge, Danish knage, Swedish knagg. Related to knarr and knur.


wryneck

Jynx torquilla
Jynx torquilla#Translingual

Either of two small woodpeckers, Jynx torquilla and Jynx ruficollis, of the Old World, that turn their heads almost 180 degrees when foraging.

ayayái

either of two small woodpeckers, Jynx torquilla and Jynx ruficollis


yellowhammer

Alteration (influenced by hammer) of earlier yelambre, yelamber, from Middle English *yelwambre, from yelwe (“yellow”) + *ambre (“yellowhammer”), from Old English amore, related to Old High German amaro (“yellowhammer”) (see modern German Ammer).

Colaptes auratus
Colaptes auratus#Translingual

(US) The northern flicker, Colaptes auratus.


yarrow

en-noun

yarrow (usually uncountable, plural yarrows)

Friedrich Kluge
John Francis Davis
Nicoline van der Sijs

From Middle English ȝarowe, yarowe, yarwe, from Old English ġearwe, from Proto-West Germanic *garwā (“yarrow, yarrow-like herbs”), perhaps derived from *garu (“prepared, ready (of food)”), as the plant was used medicinally for digestion.
Cognate with Dutch gerw (“yarrow”) and German (Schaf-)garbe.

inh

The Yarrow, where-with-all he stops the wound-made gore:

1612, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion, song 13 p. 218:

“Oh, yarrow! This is it,” she said, extracting a single long stemmed ferny grass with clusters of small white flowers from the bouquet in her hand.

1979, Victor Kaplan, The Woman who Gathered Yarrow; The Box; Miss Vesey's Other Leg, →ISBN, page 11:

Achillea millefolium
Achillea millefolium#Translingual

Common yarrow, Achillea millefolium, the type species of the genus.


popinjay

/ˈpɑpənˌd͡ʒeɪ/

From Middle English popinjay, popyngeay, popingay, popejay, from Anglo-Norman papegai, papejoie et al., (northern) Old French papejai (“parrot”), probably from Old Occitan papagay (compare Occitan papagai, Catalan papagai), ultimately from Arabic بَبْغَاء (babḡāʔ, “parrot”), of imitative origin.

The very quintessence of popinjay vulgarity is reached when nicely is made to do service for well, in this wise: "How do you do?" "Nicely." "How are you?" "Nicely."

1881, Alfred Ayres [pseudonym; Thomas Embly Osmun], “Nicely”, in The Verbalist:

(dated) A vain, gaudy person; someone who is shallow or superficial.


pecker

From Middle English pekker, equivalent to peck (“to pick at something in the manner of a bird”) + -er (“forming agent nouns”).

af

Rice mills, called pecker, cog, and water mills... The first... so called, from the pestle's striking... in the manner of a wood pecker.

1802, J. Drayton, A view of South Carolina, as respects her natural and civil concerns, page 121:

After being thrashed by flail or whipped off, the rice was milled and dressed wholly by hand or by a crude machine called a ‘pecker’.

1949, S. C. Murray, This Our Land: the Story of the Agricultural Society of South Carolina, page 41:

Someone who or something that pecks, striking or piercing in the manner of a bird's beak or bill, particularly:

(uncommon) Any machine or machine part moving in a pecking fashion, particularly:

(US regional, historical) Clipping of pecker mill, a rice mill.


yaffle

I remember the cry of the wood-peckers, or yaffils, as we call them in that country, going to roost in a pale autumnal evening […].

1792, Charlotte Smith, Desmond, Broadview, published 2001, page 114:

“‘Punched that rotton strap,’ he goes on saying, ‘like a gret ol' yaffle punchin' a 'ollow log!’”

1924, Ford Madox Ford, Some Do Not… (Parade's End), Penguin, published 2012, page 119:

(UK, dialectal) The European green woodpecker, Picus viridis.


flicker

en-verb

flicker (third-person singular simple present flickers, present participle flickering, simple past and past participle flickered)

flickers (present singular third-person)
flickering (participle present)
flickered (participle past)
flickered (past)

From Middle English flikeren (“to flutter”), from Old English flicerian, flicorian (“to flutter”), from Proto-West Germanic *flikurōn.
Akin to Saterland Frisian flikkerje (“to flicker”),
West Frisian flikkerje (“to flicker”), Dutch flikkeren (“to flicker, flutter”), German Low German flickern (“to light up, flash, flicker”). Compare Old English flacor (“flickering, fluttering”), German flackern (“to flicker, flutter”), Old English flēogan (“to fly”).

cog

The shadows flicker to and fro.

1832 December (indicated as 1833), Alfred Tennyson, “The Death of the Old Year”, in Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC:

Long after his cigar burnt bitter, he sat with eyes fixed on the blaze. When the flames at last began to flicker and subside, his lids fluttered, then drooped; but he had lost all reckoning of time when he opened them again to find Miss Erroll in furs and ball-gown kneeling on the hearth and heaping kindling on the coals, […]

1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter III, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

(intransitive) To burn or shine unsteadily, or with a wavering light.

A strong desire to smash up everything in the room kept flickering in his head.

There I lay on one side with a thin and rotten plank between the dead man and me, dazed with the blow to my head, and breathing hard; while the glow of torches as they came down the passage reddened and flickered on the roof above.

[1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC:

The ruddy brick floor smiled up at the smoky ceiling; the oaken settles, shiny with long wear, exchanged cheerful glances with each other; plates on the dresser grinned at pots on the shelf, and the merry firelight flickered and played over everything without distinction.

1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC:

I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker, / And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker, / And in short, I was afraid.

1915 June, T[homas] S[tearns] Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, in Prufrock and Other Observations, London: The Egoist […], published 1917, →OCLC, page 13:

1967, Barry Mason (writer), Tom Jones (performer), Delilah
I saw the light on the night that I passed by her window / I saw the flickering shadow of love on her blind

In a city where media companies and hospitals have armed guards, this accessibility is unusual. Inside, drivers sit and chat in between shifts, the overhead fan whirring and causing the dim electric light to flicker over their faces.

2017 April 6, Samira Shackle, “On the frontline with Karachi’s ambulance drivers”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC:

(intransitive) To keep going on and off; to appear and disappear for short moments; to flutter.


flicker

1808, American English, probably echoic of the bird's call, or from the white spotted plumage which appears to flicker.

onomatopoeic

echoic

(US) Any of certain small woodpeckers, especially of the genus Colaptes.


sapsucker

/ˈsæpˌsʌkəɹ/

A woodpecker of the eastern United States (of the genus Sphyrapicus) that feeds mainly on the sap of trees


peckerwood

Inversion of woodpecker. Application to white people is due to the perception that the woodpecker is a symbol of whites, whereas the crow or blackbird is a symbol of blacks.

On the morning of the next, one of Mr. White's daughters came into the house to inform me that there was a "peckerwood" in a tree in the yard. I immediately took my gun and went out to investigate thinking that perhaps it was a Pileolated Woodpecker, a bird I wanted to obtain.

1900 January 15, T. P. Drowne, “A Trip to Fauquier Co., Virginia; With Notes on the Specimens Obtained.”, in Walter F. Webb, editor, The Museum: A Monthly Magazine Devoted to Research in Natural Science, volume 6, number 3, Albion, page 38:

When I was a boy, I rooted over an old dead sourwood to get some peckerwood eggs.

1953, Jesse Stuart, The Good Spirit of Laurel Ridge, New York: McGraw-Hill, →LCCN, →OL:

There was nothing but a peckerwood on an oak tree.

1992, Robert Morgan, The Mountains Won't Remember Us: And Other Stories, New York: Scribner, published 2000, →ISBN, →OL, page 40:

(Southern US, Appalachia, slang) A woodpecker.


tapper

(telegraphy) In early wireless telegraphs, a device used to shake loose the filings of a coherer.

lesser spotted woodpecker
lesser spotted woodpecker

(British, dialect) The lesser spotted woodpecker.

(sports) An assistant in the sport of paraswimming who taps blind or visually impaired swimmers with a pole to indicate when they should turn around.


carpintero

Borrowed from Spanish carpintero (“carpenter; woodpecker”). Doublet of carpenter.

bor+

The acorn woodpecker, Melanerpes formicivorus, a woodpecker of southwestern North America, noted for its habit of inserting acorns in holes which it drills in trees.


yellow-bellied sapsucker

en-noun

yellow-bellied sapsucker (plural yellow-bellied sapsuckers)

A type of woodpecker. (Sphyrapicus varius)


yaffingale

/ˈjæfɪŋɡeɪl/

From English dialect yaffle (and under the influence of nightingale), from the sound.

(archaic) the European green woodpecker, Picus viridis


yellow-shafted flicker

yellow-shafted flicker (plural yellow-shafted flickers)

A yellow-plumaged woodpecker, native to North America, Colaptes auratus.


pileated woodpecker

pileated woodpecker (plural pileated woodpeckers)

A large woodpecker native to North America, Dryocopus pileatus


speight

From late Northern Middle English specht (“woodpecker”), from Old English *spiht, *speoht, from Proto-West Germanic *spiht, *speht, from Proto-Germanic *spihtaz, *spehtaz, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peyk- (“a kind of bird, woodpecker, magpie”).
Traditionally considered to be borrowed from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German, but this is rendered problematic by the mention of Spehtesberie in Domesday (Middle English Speghtesbury, Spettesbury; modern Spettisbury). Compare Dutch specht (“woodpecker”), German Specht (“woodpecker”), Danish spætte (“woodpecker”), Latin pīcus (“woodpecker”).


acorn woodpecker

en-noun

acorn woodpecker (plural acorn woodpeckers)

A woodpecker native to the area from the southwestern United States to Colombia, of species Melanerpes formicivorus.


northern flicker

northern flicker (plural northern flickers)

Colaptes auratus, a medium-sized member of the woodpecker family, native to most of Central and North America.


eckle

From a variation of ickle (“icicle”), from Middle English ikil, ykle, from Old English ġicel (“ice, icicle”), from Proto-West Germanic *jikil, from Proto-Germanic *jekulaz (“piece of ice”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁eyH- (“icefloe, icicle”). More at ickle.


eckle

en-verb

eckle (third-person singular simple present eckles, present participle eckling, simple past and past participle eckled)

eckles (present singular third-person)
eckling (participle present)
eckled (participle past)
eckled (past)

(intransitive, Northern England) To aim; intend; design.


woodhack

The woodhacke, that syngeth ‘chur’,
Horsly, as he had the mur; […]

c. 1505, John Skelton, Phyllyp Sparowe; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, →OCLC, page 82, lines 418–419:


woodwall

From Middle English wodewale, of uncertain origin, probably from Old English, but perhaps from Middle Dutch wedewale with 1st element reanalyzed as from Middle English wode (“wood”).

The yaffle bird; the European green woodpecker.


whetile

European green woodpecker
European green woodpecker

(England, dialect, archaic) The European green woodpecker


snakebird

From snake + bird, from its snake-like neck.

A darter: any bird of the genus Anhinga.


nickle

European green woodpecker (Picus viridis).


crankbird

(dialect, dated) A small European woodpecker (Dryobates minor, formerly Picus minor).


hewhole

(UK, dialect) The European green woodpecker.


mackerel bird

(Guernsey) The Eurasian wryneck (Jynx torquilla).


piculet

A small woodpecker of the genus Picumnus and other genera in subfamily Picumninae.


hickwall

From Middle English hyghwhele; also highwale (1500s) or highawe (1600s). Rarely attested before the sixteenth century, making the original form difficult to trace. Probably imitative of the bird's cry; compare yaffle (“green woodpecker”). Possibly influenced by witwall, woodwall.

(UK, regional) A lesser spotted woodpecker (Dryobates minor).

[…]at Shenington for example, the churchwardens paid 4d for each Hickwall (green woodpecker) killed, but there is no record of any payment for weasels, which were worth 3d at Bodicote. One would like to know if Hickwalls were rare at Bodicote and weasels at Shenington, or if in fact they were not considered to be vermin in these parishes.

1975, Banbury Historical Society, Cake & Cockhorse, volume 6, page 126:

(UK, regional) A European green woodpecker (Picus viridis).

Tomtit, Blue Tomtit, Nun, Blue-cap, Blue-bonnet, Billy-biter, Hickwall, Blue Mope. One of the most impudent of an impudent lot.

1861, John Christopher Atkinson, British Birds' Eggs and Nests, Popularly Described, page 43:

Cyanistes caeruleus
Cyanistes caeruleus#Translingual

(UK, regional, archaic) A blue tit, Cyanistes caeruleus.


witwall

Akin to German Wittewal, Wiedewall. Compare wittol.

great spotted woodpecker
great spotted woodpecker

(UK, dialect) The great spotted woodpecker.


picid

(zoology) Any member of the family Picidae, the woodpeckers.


picine

en-adj

picine (comparative more picine, superlative most picine)

more picine (comparative)
most picine (superlative)

(ornithology) Of or relating to the woodpeckers (Pici), or to the Piciformes.


jynx

An adaptation of the Latin iynx (“wryneck”), itself an adaptation of the Ancient Greek ἴῠγξ (íŭnx, “Eurasian wryneck”, “Jynx torquilla”; figuratively “a spell or charm”, “passionate yearning”), which see for an explanation of the development of its senses.

iynx [in the 19th century]

adaptations of the Latin nominative singular, iynx

jyng [both disused after the 17th century]

Then is the Intelligible Jynx; next which are the Synoches, the Empyreal, the Ætherial and the Material; after the Synoches are the Teletarchs…Intelligent Jynges do themselves also understand from the Father By unspeakable Counsels being moved so as to understand.

1655, Thomas Stanley, The History of the Chaldaick Philosophy, published 1701, page 17/2:

The name of an order of spiritual intelligences in ancient “Chaldaic” philosophy.


Campo flicker

Colaptes campestris, a bird in the woodpecker family, found in South America.


ivorybill

ivory-billed woodpecker
ivory-billed woodpecker

An ivory-billed woodpecker (Campephilus principalis).


barley-bird

Any of several birds distinguished by their appearance in England at the time of barley-sowing.


red-cockaded woodpecker

en-noun

red-cockaded woodpecker (plural red-cockaded woodpeckers)

The male has a small red streak on each side of its black cap called a cockade.

Leuconotopicus borealis, a woodpecker of southeastern North America.


yucker

A bird, the American flicker or golden-winged woodpecker.


goldenback

Any of a group of large woodpeckers that are resident breeders in tropical southern Asia.


Eurasian three-toed woodpecker

Eurasian three-toed woodpecker (plural Eurasian three-toed woodpeckers)

Eurasian three-toed woodpeckers (plural)

Picoides tridactylus
Picoides tridactylus#Translingual

Any of species Picoides tridactylus of medium-sized woodpeckers.


middle spotted woodpecker

middle spotted woodpecker (plural middle spotted woodpeckers)

Dendrocoptes medius
Dendrocoptes medius#Translingual

Any of species Dendrocoptes medius of a medium-sized woodpecker.


grey-headed woodpecker

grey-headed woodpecker (plural grey-headed woodpeckers)

Picus canus, a Eurasian member of the woodpecker family, greyer than other similar Eurasian woodpeckers.


Magellanic woodpecker

Magellanic woodpecker (plural Magellanic woodpeckers)

A species of bird, Campephilus magellanicus, found in southern Chile.


Eurasian wryneck

Eurasian wryneck (plural Eurasian wrynecks)

A small migratory bird in the woodpecker family, Jynx torquilla.


yawker bird

yakker (“a curveball or slider”)

No bird in America has so many local names as the Flicker. Some of these are Highholder, Wake-up, Walk-up, Pigeon, Woodpecker, and Yawker-bird

1910, Annual Report of the Missouri State Board of Agriculture, page 280:

Being a common bird he has a number of names such as high-hole, yellow hammer, golden-winged woodpecker, wakeup, yawker bird, and others.


ivory-billed woodpecker

ivory-billed woodpecker (plural ivory-billed woodpeckers)

A possibly extinct woodpecker of species Campephilus principalis, of the southern United States and Cuba, with a white bill.


crimson-winged woodpecker

crimson-winged woodpecker (plural crimson-winged woodpeckers)

Any of species Picus puniceus, a yellow-bodied and crimson-winged woodpecker native to multiple southeastern Asian countries.


downy woodpecker

downy woodpecker (plural downy woodpeckers)

A small woodpecker native to North America, Dryobates pubescens


black-tailed flycatcher

black-tailed flycatcher (plural black-tailed flycatchers)

A South-American flycatcher, Myiobius atricaudus


ashy woodpecker

ashy woodpecker (plural ashy woodpeckers)

Any of species Mulleripicus fulvus, a woodpecker native to Indonesia


red-necked woodpecker

red-necked woodpecker (plural red-necked woodpeckers)

A woodpecker native to South America, Campephilus rubricollis


European green woodpecker

European green woodpecker (plural European green woodpeckers)

A large, green woodpecker resident in much of Europe, Picus viridis.


red-shafted flicker

red-shafted flicker (plural red-shafted flickers)

northern flicker
northern flicker#English


red-breasted sapsucker

red-breasted sapsucker (plural red-breasted sapsuckers)

A type of woodpecker. (Sphyrapicus ruber)


pygmy woodpecker

pygmy woodpecker (plural pygmy woodpeckers)

Any of the genus Yungipicus of small eastern Asian woodpeckers.


three-toed woodpecker

three-toed woodpecker (plural three-toed woodpeckers)

Any member of either of the species of woodpecker of the genus Picoides.


American three-toed woodpecker

American three-toed woodpecker (plural American three-toed woodpeckers)

American three-toed woodpeckers (plural)

A woodpecker of species Picoides dorsalis.


hairy woodpecker

hairy woodpecker (plural hairy woodpeckers)

A species of woodpecker, Leuconotopicus villosus


Nubian woodpecker

Nubian woodpecker (plural Nubian woodpeckers)

(ornithology) A bird of species Campethera nubica in the family Picidae.