sergeant

From Middle English sergeant, sergeaunt, serjent, serjaunt, serjawnt, sergant, from Old French sergeant, sergent, serjant, sergient, sergant (“sergeant, servant”), from Medieval Latin servientem, accusative of serviens (“a servant, vassal, soldier, apparitor”), from Latin serviēns (“serving”), present participle of serviō (“serve, be a slave to”). Doublet of servant and servient.
The shift from /vj/ > /dʒ/ was a regular development in Old French. Compare cavea > cage, salvia > sage.
The fish is so called because of its stripes, supposed to resemble a sergeant's insignia of rank.
The pronunciation with /ɑɹ/ is due to a widespread development of Middle English er + consonant (see barn, start etc.). In sergeant, the spelling was standardised in one way, the pronunciation in another (compare clerk, derby in Commonwealth English, further parson vs. person, and varsity vs. university).


flyer

→ Finnish: flaijeri

→ French: flyer

→ German: Flyer

→ Korean: 플라이어 (peullaieo)

→ Portuguese: flyer

From fly + -er (agent noun suffix).
With regard to the sense "female kangaroo": because of the high speed at which they move.

طَيَّار

someone who pilots or rides in an airplane


jug

en-noun

jug (countable and uncountable, plural jugs)

→ Welsh: jwg, jẁg, siwg

From Middle English jugge, of uncertain origin. Possibly a variant of Middle English jubbe, jobbe, iubbe, geobbe, itself of unknown origin; or perhaps continuing (in altered form) Old English ċēac (“pitcher; jug”). Compare also jug (“a low woman, maidservant”), from Jug, familiar form of Joanna.

the jug goes to the well until it breaks

(US, slang) The P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft.


jug

When the dog’s owners returned with their shopping, I asked what the little dog was. She was a Jug, a Jack Russell-Pug cross. We found out lots about this crossbreed, thought long and hard, and decided a Jug and a Spitz could work really well together.

2013, Lost & Found: True tales of love and rescue from Battersea Dogs & Cats Home, Penguin Group:

2014, Alan Kenworthy, Jugs: Buying, Caring For, Grooming, Health, Training and Understanding Your Jug Dog or Puppy, Feel Happy Limited

2015, George Hoppendale, Jugs: Jug Dog Complete Owners Manual - Jug book for care, costs, feeding, grooming, health and training, Internet Marketing Business

Stanley ¶ Jug (Jack Russell/Pug cross); 18 months old; keeps fit chasing his ball or frisbee, but would rather be laid on his back, snoring

2018, Cheryl Murphy, Dogs just wanna have FUN!, Veloce Publishing, page 110:

A small mixed breed of dog created by mating a Jack Russell terrier and a pug.


jug

en-verb

jug (third-person singular simple present jugs, present participle jugging, simple past and past participle jugged)

jugs (present singular third-person)
jugging (participle present)
jugged (participle past)
jugged (past)

Origin uncertain. Perhaps a shortening of juggernaut or an alteration of juke/jook. Compare juug.

unk

Origin uncertain

(slang) To hustle or make money, usually aggressively.


Cape hunting dog

en-noun

Cape hunting dog (plural Cape hunting dogs)


African hunting dog

African hunting dog (plural African hunting dogs)

Lycaon pictus
Lycaon pictus#Translingual

(zoology) A wild canid, Lycaon pictus, typically black, white and tan, found in Tanzania, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa.

Naakaii Łizhiní Bikéyahdę́ę́ʼ łééchąąʼí ałchiní


golden

From Middle English golden, a restored form (due to the noun gold) of earlier Middle English gulden, gylden, gilden ("golden"; > English gilden), from Old English gylden (“golden”), from Proto-West Germanic *gulþīn, from Proto-Germanic *gulþīnaz (“golden, made of gold”), equivalent to gold + -en.
Cognate with Dutch gouden, gulden (“golden”), German gülden, golden (“golden”), Danish gylden (“golden”). Doublet of gilden. More at gold.

gloss

"golden"; > English <i class="Latn mention" lang="en">gilden</i>

der

[ˈɡɒʊ̯ɫ.dn̩]

Kyphosus vaigiensis, a fish found in southeast Asia.


stinker

Today's crossword is a stinker.

I number several authors among my acquaintance […] and they invariably become all of a doodah when they read a stinker in the press about their latest effort.

1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter V, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

I sat there seething with fury. And after I had seethed for a bit I rose from my chair, took pen in hand and wrote Bobbie a stinker. […] I accused her in set terms of giving me the heave-ho in order that she could mercenarily marry a richer man. I called her a carrot-topped Jezebel whom I was thankful to have got out of my hair. I... Oh, I can't remember what else I said but, as I say, it was a stinker.

1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter X, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

(slang) Something difficult (e.g. a given puzzle) or unpleasant (e.g. negative review, nasty letter).

Any of several species of large Antarctic petrels which feed on blubber and carrion and have an offensive odour, such as the giant fulmar.

western grey kangaroo
western grey kangaroo

(Australia, informal) A western grey kangaroo.


sloth

en-noun

sloth (countable and uncountable, plural sloths)

From Middle English slouthe, slewthe (“laziness”), from Old English slǣwþ (“sloth, indolence, laziness, inertness, torpor”), from Proto-West Germanic *slaiwiþu, from Proto-Germanic *slaiwiþō (“slowness, lateness”), equivalent to slow + -th. Cognate with Scots sleuth (“sloth, slowness”).

inh

(countable) A herbivorous, arboreal South American mammal of the families Choloepodidae and Bradypodidae, noted for its slowness and inactivity.


ichthyosaurus

/ˌɪkθiəˈsɔːɹəs/


dogfish

From dog + fish. Compare Greek σκυλόψαρο (skylópsaro, “dogfish”), Latin canicula (“dogfish”, literally “little dog”), Italian pescecane (“dogfish”), French chien de mer (literally “dog of the sea”), German Meerhund (literally “seadog”) and Hundfisch (“dogfish”), and English seadog. For non-Indo-European cognates, see Maltese kelb il-baħar (literally “dog of the sea”) and Turkish köpek balığı (“shark”), likely calques from Indo-European languages.

Dornhaiartige

small sharks of the Scyliorhinidae, Dalatiidae and Squalidae families

dogfish orientalis

a grunt native to coral reefs of the western Pacific Ocean

Plunket's dogfish (Centroscymnus plunketi

rasptooth dogfish (Etmopterus sheikoi

alternately known as Miroscyllium sheikoi

a kitefin shark, any shark from family Dalatiidae


roo

(Australia, slang) Clipping of kangaroo.


bunker

Clipping of mossbunker, a variant of mossbanker, from Dutch marsbanker (“common scad or Atlantic horse mackerel (Trachurus trachurus)”), from Marsdiep (“deep tide-race between Den Helder and Texel in the Netherlands”) + bank (“shallow part of the sea near a coast”) + -er (suffix forming nouns denoting male inhabitants of a place).

der

Ten hours of footage revealed the young [shark's] habits, such as diving for squid up to 150 feet deep, then moving closer to shore to feast on huge schools of bunker fish.

2024 June 24, Melanie Haiken, “Baby great white shark reveals huge nursery near NYC in scientific first”, in National Geographic:

(US, regional) The menhaden, any of several species of fish in the genera Brevoortia and Ethmidium.


phoebe

Any of several birds of the genus Sayornis.


lox

Coordinate term: gox (“gaseous oxygen”)

[Man]: Lox tanking secured? / [Man 2]: Lox tanking secured.

1959, “I Shot an Arrow into the Air” (0:45 from the start), in The Twilight Zone, season 1, episode 15:

Liquid oxygen (molecular oxygen in liquid form).


sablefish

en-noun

sablefish (plural sablefishes or sablefish)

Other deep creatures now being harvested or targeted as seafood include rattails, skates, squid, red crabs, orange roughy, black oreos, smooth oreos, hoki, blue ling, southern blue whiting, sablefish, black scabbard fish and spiny dogfish.

1995 December 26, William J. Broad, “Creatures of the Deep Find Their Way to the Table”, in The New York Times:

A dark-coloured marine fish of species Anoplopoma fimbria, of North American Pacific waters.


pterodactyl

/ˌtɛɹəˈdæktl̩/

/ˌtɛɹəˈdæktɪl/

From French ptérodactyle, a term coined by Cuvier from Ancient Greek πτερόν (pterón, “wing”) + δάκτυλος (dáktulos, “finger”); by surface analysis, ptero- + -dactyl.


albacore

From Portuguese albacor, from Arabic اَلْبَكُورَة (al-bakūra, “the young camels”).

der

اَلْبَكُورَة

But most of all, they were jealous because these strangers feasted daily on great turtle, albacore and sail-fish, the sweetest of all seafoods.

1929, Robert Dean Frisbee, The Book of Puka-Puka, Eland, published 2019, page 127:

Thunnus alalunga
Thunnus alalunga#Translingual

A longfin tuna, a large marine fish (Thunnus alalunga) of warm seas, having edible flesh.


macaw

Any of various parrots of the genera Ara, Anodorhynchus, Cyanopsitta, Orthopsittaca, Primolius and Diopsittaca of Central and South America, including the largest parrots and characterized by long sabre-shaped tails, curved powerful bills, and usually brilliant plumage.


satyr

From French satyre, from Latin satyrus, from Ancient Greek σάτυρος (sáturos).

Any of various butterflies of the nymphalid subfamily Satyrinae, having brown wings marked with eyelike spots; a meadow brown.


pangolin

/pæŋˈɡoʊlɪn/

Borrowed from Malay pengguling, from peng- (“denominative prefix”) + guling (“to roll”).

prefix

Like many Sri Lankans, pangolins have big tongues, thick hides and small brains. They pick on ants, rats and anything smaller than them. They hide in terror when faced with bullies and get up to mischief when the lights are out. They are hundreds of thousands of years old and are plodding towards extinction.

2022, Shehan Karunatilaka, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, Sort Of Books, page 302:

The scaly anteater; any of several long-tailed, scale-covered mammals of the order Pholidota of tropical Africa and Asia, the sole extant genus of which is Manis.


orangutan

→ Catalan: orangutan

→ Czech: orangutan

→ Faroese: orangutang (perhaps via another European language)

desctree

→ French: orang-outan, ourang-outang
→ Romanian: urangutan

→ German: Orang-Utan

desc

ουρακοτάγκος

→ Greek: ουρακοτάγκος (ourakotágkos)

→ Hungarian: orangután

→ Italian: orangutan, orango

→ Japanese: オランウータン (oran'ūtan)

→ Korean: 오랑우탄 (orang'utan)

→ Polish: orangutan

desctree

→ Russian: орангутан (orangutan), орангутанг (orangutang)
→ Armenian: օրանգուտան (ōrangutan)
→ Ingrian: orang-utan

→ Serbo-Croatian:

Cyrillic script: орангу̀та̄н

Latin script: orangùtān

→ Sicilian: rangutanu

→ Spanish: orangután
→ Galician: orangután

→ Swedish: orangutang

→ Thai: อุรังอุตัง (ù-rang-ù-dtang)

→ Turkish: orangutan

/əˌɹæŋ.uːˈtæn/

/əˌɹæŋ.uːˈtæŋ/

/ɔəˌɹæŋuːˈtæn/

/ˌɔə.ɹæŋˈuː.tæn/

/əˈɹæŋ.əˌtæn/

/əˈɹæŋ.əˌtæŋ/

/ɔˈɹæŋ.ʊˌtæn/

/əˈɹæŋˌə.tɛːŋ/

/əˈɹæŋˌə.tæŋ/

From Malay orang (“person, man”) + hutan (“forest”); literally, "forest man". Other names for the animal are mawas and mayas.
The name orangutan has been used in Old Javanese texts, notably in Rāmāyaṇa and in Smaradahana in the form of uraŋutan and wuraŋutan. The usage of the word to refer to the apes in these texts opposes the belief of the name orangutan originating from a European source.

Pongo pygmaeus
Pongo pygmaeus#Translingual

Any of three species of arboreal anthropoid ape, characterised by their shaggy reddish-brown coat and long arms, which comprise the genus Pongo; Pongo pygmaeus of Borneo, Pongo abelii of Sumatra or Pongo tapanuliensis of South Tapanuli (in Sumatra).


molid

(zoology) Any fish in the family Molidae.


grouper

From Portuguese garoupa (“grouper”). Compare garrupa.

/ˈɡɹuːpə(ɹ)/

Any of various large food and game fishes of the subfamily Epinephelinae, especially the genera Epinephelus and Mycteroperca, which inhabit warm seas.

black grouper

Hyporthodus mystacinus; Mycteroperca bonaci

comb grouper

Mycteroperca rubra; Mycteroperca acutirostris

humpback grouper

Cromileptes altivelis, syn. Epinephelus altivelis

snowy grouper

Hyporthodus niveatus; Hyporthodus niphobles


mugger

A person who assaults and robs others, especially in a public place.


collie

Perhaps originally from coal, with reference to its colour; compare colly and collier. More at Wikipedia at collie § Name.

Any of various breeds of dog originating in Scotland and England as sheepdogs


vault

Borrowed from Middle French volter (“to turn or spin around; to frolic”), borrowed from Italian voltare, itself from a Vulgar Latin frequentative form of Latin volvere; later assimilated to Etymology 1, above.

bor

(equestrianism) Synonym of volte: a circular movement by the horse.


condor

→ Welsh: condor

→ Korean: 콘도르 (kondoreu)

From Spanish cóndor, from Classical Quechua kuntur. The change /t/ to /d/ was charactersitic of the "coastal" variety of the language.

A gold coin of some South American countries bearing the figure of one of these vultures.


gawk

en-verb

gawk (third-person singular simple present gawks, present participle gawking, simple past and past participle gawked)

gawks (present singular third-person)
gawking (participle present)
gawked (participle past)
gawked (past)

Perhaps from English dialectal gaw (“to stare; gawk”) + -k, as in talk, stalk, etc., ultimately from Old Norse gá (“to heed”).


musk

en-noun

musk (countable and uncountable, plural musks)

→ Irish: musc

→ Welsh: mwsg

From Middle English muske, borrowed from Old French musc, from Late Latin muscus, from Ancient Greek μόσχος (móskhos), from Middle Persian [script needed] (mwšk' /mušk/) whence Persian مشک (mošk). Ultimately from Sanskrit मुष्क (muṣka, “testicle”), the shape of the gland of animals secreting the substance being compared to human testicles, a diminutive of मूष् (mūṣ, “mouse”), the shape of human testicles being compared to mice, from Proto-Indo-European *muh₂s (“mouse”). Cognate with mouse.

der

A plant of the genus Erodium (Erodium moschatum); the musky heronsbill.

A plant of the genus Muscari; grape hyacinth.


orca

Learned borrowing from Latin orca (“tun, cask; whale”), see there for more. Although the origin is obscure, the sometimes-cited association with orcus (“underworld”) is folk-etymology. Doublet of orc.

lbor

In the summer, when the weather is calm and beautiful, large flocks of orcæ can be seen approaching the shallow places near the shore, or between the numerous islands of the White Sea. Several fishermen associate for hunting orcæ, each one furnishing a boat, and a large seine made of cords of the thickness of a finger, the meshes being 10½ inches square.

1876, Alexander Schultz, “Account of the Fisheries and Seal-Hunting in the White Sea, the Arctic Ocean, and the Caspian Sea”, in United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries. Part III. Report of the Commissioner for 1873-4 and 1874-5., Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, page 55:

A sea mammal (Orcinus orca) related to dolphins and porpoises, commonly called the killer whale.


fluffer

"This isn't MGM. I don't do this full-time," she said. "During production, I'm the AD. Occasionally, I fill in as a fluffer."

1991, Robert Reeves, Peeping Thomas, →ISBN, page 112:

(pornography) One who arouses male pornographic actors before filming.

felszopó

arouses a male pornographic actor through fellatio


kitty litter

en-noun

kitty litter (usually uncountable, plural kitty litters)

[ˈkʰɪɾi ˈlɪɾɚ]

(by extension, informal) Any similar mix, used to soak up liquid spills.

(motor racing, informal) A gravel trap (a large area of gravel used to slow cars that leave the track)


wampum

wampum (countable and uncountable, plural wampums or wampum)

Clipping of wampumpeag (“wampum”), probably borrowed from Massachusett wampompeage (“string of white beads used as money”), from wamp, wap, wompi (“white”) + umpe (“string”) + -ag (plural suffix).
Compare peag (“string of white beads used as money”), also a clipping of wampumpeag.
Sense 3 (“common kingsnake”) is from the similarity of the snake’s appearance to a string of wampum.
cognates
* Penobscot wάpαpəyak (singular wάpαpi)
* Unami òpapiàk (singular òpapi)

ref

From the collection of the McCord Stewart Museum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

suckauhock

beads made from black shells which have been strung together

(uncountable):

[A]mong the Red Men of America the giving of the white belt of wampum was the deepest pledge of honor; […]

1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Whiteness of the Whale”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 208:

From his lodge went Hiawatha, / Dressed for travel, armed for hunting; / Dressed in deer-skin shirt and leggings, / Richly wrought with quills and wampum; / On his head his eagle-feathers, / Round his waist his belt of wampum, […]

1855 November 10, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Hiawatha and Mudjekeewis”, in The Song of Hiawatha, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 51:

These title deeds are of wampum, the grant of an Indian chief to the first Dowell, who left Farnham in Surrey in company with William Penn.

1915, Ford Madox Hueffer [i.e., Ford Madox Ford], chapter I, in The Good Soldier: A Tale of Passion, London: John Lane, The Bodley Head; New York, N.Y.: John Lane Company, →OCLC; republished Harmondsworth, Middlesex [London]: Penguin Books, 1972 (1982 printing), →ISBN, part I, page 12:

(uncountable) Small cylindrical beads made from polished shells (especially white ones) which have been strung together, formerly used by Native American peoples of eastern North America for various purposes including as jewellery and money, and for record-keeping; (countable, archaic) one such bead.

wampum

small cylindrical beads made from polished shells (especially white ones) which have been strung together; one such bead


bilby

Macrotis lagotis
Macrotis lagotis#Translingual

An Australian desert marsupial (Macrotis lagotis), with distinctive large ears and approximately the size of a rabbit.


pufferfish

en-noun

pufferfish (countable and uncountable, plural pufferfish or pufferfishes)

pufferfish (plural)
pufferfishes (plural)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-pufferfish.wav

Any species of fish of the family Tetraodontidae that have the ability to inflate themselves to a globe several times their normal size by swallowing water or air when threatened; puffer, blowfish, swellfish, balloonfish, globefish.


blowfish

blowfish (plural blowfish or blowfishes)

A delicacy popular in Japan, consisting of the fish served raw as sushi or perhaps fried. It may, if improperly prepared, contain considerably deadly levels of neurotoxins.

河豚

a delicacy popular in Japan served raw as sushi that may, if improperly prepared, contain deadly levels of neurotoxins


skipper

From Middle English skippere, skyppare, equivalent to skip + -er.

Sprattus sprattus
Sprattus sprattus#Translingual

Any of several marine fishes that often leap above water, especially Cololabis saira (Pacific saury) and Sprattus sprattus (European sprat).

w:Webster's Dictionary#Webster's New International Dictionary 1909

The cheese maggot, the larva of a cheese fly (family Piophilidae), which leaps to escape predators.


fetlock

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-fetlock.wav

From Middle English fitlokes, feetlakkes pl, equivalent to foot + lock (“tuft of hair”). Cognate with Middle Low German fitlok, fitlock (“fetlock”), Dutch vitlok, vittelokke, vitslok, German Fissloch, Fisloch, Fislach (“fetlock; pastern”).

The tuft of hair that grows at this joint.


bunting

bunting (countable and uncountable, plural buntings)

(obsolete) An old boys' game, played with sticks and a small piece of wood.


bufo

From translingual Bufo marinus (now Rhinella marina), the cane toad, from Latin būfō (“toad”).


squeal

Inherited from Middle English squelen, probably from Old Norse skvala (“to squeal, bawl”), from Proto-Germanic *skwel- (“to chatter, babble, scream”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *skel-, from *kelh₁- (“to ring, resound, cry”). Compare Old Norse skval (“a squeal”, noun), Swedish skvallra (“to babble, chatter, tell on”).

cog

A high-pitched sound, such as the scream of a child or a female person, or noisy worn-down brake pads.


echidna

Coined in scientific literature around 1811. Probably from Ancient Greek ἔχιδνα (ékhidna, “snake, viper”) via Latin echidna. Compare ἐχῖνος (ekhînos, “hedgehog, etc.”). However, this sense is problematic (unless it is a reference to the ant-eating tongue). The name perhaps belongs to Latin echinus (“sea urchin, hedgehog”) from the aforementioned Ancient Greek term's alternate sense of "sea-urchin" (also "sharp points"), which Watkins explains as "snake-eater", from ἔχις (ékhis, “snake”), though it may actually be from Proto-Indo-European *h₁éǵʰis (“hedgehog, hedgehog-like animals”). The 1810 Encyclopaedia Britannica deduces thus the animal's alternative name as "porcupine ant-eater".
Alternatively, and perhaps more likely, the name refers to Echidna as the name of a serpent-nymph in Greek mythology, "a beautiful woman in the upper part of her body; but instead of legs and feet, she had from the waist downward, the form of a serpent", in which case the animal was named for its mixed features (early naturalists doubted whether it was a mammal or amphibian). Ultimately, the etymology may be from a synthesis of all the roots above. (From OED.)

der

Any of the species of small spined monotremes in family Tachyglossidae, the four extant species of which are found in Australia and southern New Guinea.

mierystervark

any of the four species of small spined monotremes


diprotodon

From di- + proto- + -odon, due to its prominent two front teeth.

It is rather hard to understand how animals so largo and heavy as the diprotodons and gigantic kangaroos could have existed there when the country was in the same state in which it is now,[…].

1882, Royal Society of New South Wales, Journal and proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, volume 15, page 51:

No fewer than eighty diprotodons are represented by the bones already unearthed, […]

1893, Edward Jewitt Wheeler, Isaac Kaufman Funk, William Seaver Woods, The Literary Digest, volume 7, page 638:

Soon we had a good view of the diprotodons, relatives of the present-day wombat but vastly larger.

1993, Lyon Sprague De Camp, Rivers of Time, page 248:

Any individual of the extinct marsupial genus Diprotodon, similar to a wombat in appearance but the size of a small elephant.


tyrant

→ Welsh: teirant

From Middle English tyraunt, tiraunt, tyrant, tyrante, from Old French tyrant, from the addition of a terminal -t to tiran (cp. French tyran) via a back-formation related to the development of French present participles out of the Latin -ans form, from Latin tyrannus (“despot”), from Ancient Greek τύραννος (túrannos, “usurper, monarch, despot”), of uncertain origin.

tirà

person who uses violence to treat others unjustly

The Tyrant... The courage of this little Bird is singular.

1731, Mark Catesby, The natural history of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands, I 55:

The lesser tyrants (Tyrannulae) are spread over the whole of America, where they represent the true flycatcher... The tyrants are bold and quarrelsome birds, particularly during the season of incubation.

c. 1841, Swainson, Penny Cyclopaedia, XXI 415 2

Tyrant or Tyrant-bird, Catesby applied it solely to...the King-bird..., but apparently as much in reference to its bright crown...as to its tyrannical behaviour to other birds.

1895, Alfred Newton, A Dictionary of Birds:

The tyrant birds, members of the family Tyrannidae, which often fight or drive off other birds which approach their nests.


mockingbird

/ˈmɒkɪŋbɜːd/

/ˈmɑkɪŋˌbɝd/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-mockingbird.wav

From mocking + bird, from the ability of the birds to mimic sounds and, in some cases, hum as a wake up call.

(archaic) Synonym of tui (“a species of honeyeater, Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae, a bird which is endemic to New Zealand”)


songbird

Any bird in the passerine suborder Passeri, which are distinguished by a more sophisticated vocal apparatus.


eggnog

en-noun

eggnog (countable and uncountable, plural eggnogs)

American English c. 1775 (although drinks like it are attested far earlier, e.g. posset, of which a monastic Christmas recipe used eggs), from egg + nog.
The second element is uncertain and long-debated; prominent claims include Norfolk dialect nog (“strong ale”), or a clipping of noggin (“small, carved wooden mug used to serve alcohol”) (q.v.). Other hypotheses include a variant of grog (“rum-and-water cocktail”), and descent from Old Norse (compare wassail).

A beverage based on milk, eggs, sugar, and nutmeg; often made alcoholic with rum, brandy, or whisky; popular at Christmas.


puma

→ Malay: puma

→ Swedish: puma

Borrowed from Spanish puma, from Quechua puma.

Puma concolor
Puma concolor#Translingual

A mountain lion or cougar (Puma concolor).


boiled egg

An egg which has been cooked in the shell in boiling water. It can be hard-boiled or soft-boiled.


flying gurnard

Any tropical marine fish of the family Dactylopteridae, having immense wing-like pectoral fins used to glide through the water.


foxhound

A dog of a medium-sized breed developed for hunting.


stifle

The verb is derived from Late Middle English stuflen (“to have difficulty breathing due to heat, stifle; to suffocate by drowning, drown”) [and other forms]; further etymology uncertain, perhaps from stuffen (“to kill by suffocation; to stifle from heat; to extinguish, suppress (body heat, breath, humour, etc.); to deprive a plant of the conditions necessary for growth, choke”) + -el- (derivational infix in verbs, often denoting diminutive, intensive, or repetitive actions or events). Stuffen is derived from Old French estofer, estouffer (“to choke, strangle, suffocate; (figuratively) to inhibit, prevent”) [and other forms] (modern French étouffer), a variant of estoper, estuper (“to block, plug, stop up; to stiffen, thicken”) (modern French étouper (“to caulk”)), influenced by estofer (“to pad, stuff; to upholster”) (modern French étoffer). Estoper is derived from Vulgar Latin *stuppāre, from Latin stuppa (“coarse flax, tow”) (as a stuffing material; from Ancient Greek στύπη (stúpē), στύππη (stúppē) (compare στυππεῖον (stuppeîon)); probably from Pre-Greek) + -āre. According to the Oxford English Dictionary a derivation from Old Norse stífla (“to dam; to choke, stop up”) “appears untenable on the ground both of form and sense”.
The noun is derived from the verb.

noncog

(rare) An act or state of being stifled.


Tasmanian devil

en-noun

Tasmanian devil (plural Tasmanian devils)

Sarcophilus harrisii
Sarcophilus harrisii#Translingual

A medium-sized carnivorous marsupial (Sarcophilus harrisii) found exclusively on the island of Tasmania.

塔斯马尼亚恶魔

tǎsīmǎníyà èmó


painter

From a variation of panther, paralleling other Southern pronunciations for can't and aunt (see ain't for more details).

I have fou't most of the creatur's of the forest, such as bears, wolves, painters and catamounts, but this is the beginning with the red-skins.

1893, James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer:


cisco

From French ciscoette (“siscowet”), from Ojibwe siscowet (“cooks itself”).

Any North American freshwater fish of certain species of the genus Coregonus that live in cold-water lakes.


gobbler

Do you slip back to your truck and find another gobbler to hunt? Trying to outcall the other hunter could work, but it creates a competitive and possibly dangerous situation.

2009, Steve Hickoff, Turkey Calls & Calling:

One who gobbles:
(slang) A turkey.
Especially, a male turkey.

One who gobbles:
A turkey.
Especially, a male turkey.

My dog is such a gobbler: she can empty her food dish in less than a minute.

One who eats food very quickly, without decorum.


monkey-faced owl

monkey-faced owl (plural monkey-faced owls)


boto

Borrowed from Portuguese boto (“boto”), of uncertain origin.

But in a group where one boto puts on a display, there was much more tail-whacking, biting and other aggressive behavior among the males.

2008 April 1, Henry Fountain, “Carrying a Torch, or at Least Sprigs of Grass”, in New York Times:

Inia geoffrensis
Inia geoffrensis#Translingual

Inia geoffrensis, a species of freshwater dolphin endemic to the Amazon river system


streaker

A dolphin of species Stenella coeruleoalba.


trombone

/ˌtɹɒmˈbəʊn/

Borrowed from Italian trombone, from tromba (“trumpet”) + -one (augmentative), literally “large trumpet”.
The telecommunications sense alludes to the shape of the musical instrument.

affix

Jim plays the trombone very well.

This trombone is very expensive.

A musical instrument in the brass family, having a cylindrical bore, and usually a sliding tube (but sometimes piston valves, and rarely both). Most often refers to the tenor trombone, which is the most common type of trombone and has a fundamental tone of B♭ˌ (contra B♭).

tromboon

a musical instrument in the brass family

The trombone […] permits an instrument to be positioned over a studio set wall, enabling the set wall to support the weight of the instrument.

1983, Alan Wurtzel, Television Production, page 131:

The two secondary controls are the trombone handle and the focus knob.

2013, Harry Box, Set Lighting Technician's Handbook, page 480:

(film, television) A kind of extendable support for attaching lighting elements to a set.


trombone

en-verb

trombone (third-person singular simple present trombones, present participle tromboning, simple past and past participle tromboned)

trombones (present singular third-person)
tromboning (participle present)
tromboned (participle past)
tromboned (past)

/ˌtɹɒmˈbəʊn/

(telecommunications) To transmit a signal or data back to a central switching point before sending it out to its destination.

[…] do things wrong (like rotating the lens turret while shooting or backwinding and doing multiple passes on the same strip of film or doing in-camera fades with the variable shutter or tromboning a zoom lens like a teenager on acid, etc., etc., etc.) […]

2015, Kathryn Ramey, Experimental Filmmaking: Break the Machine, page 357:

He recalls (email to editor, 2 December 2012) that Durgnat 'shouted out' in response to his 'tromboning' the zoom-lens at the film's 1967 London Film Festival screening: […]

2014, Henry K. Miller, The Essential Raymond Durgnat, page 71:

(film, slang, transitive) To extend and retract (the zoom lens); to use it too enthusiastically.


quaily

Bartramia longicauda
Bartramia longicauda#Translingual

(obsolete) The upland sandpiper (Bartramia longicauda), a game bird.


baleen

en-noun

baleen (countable and uncountable, plural baleens)

From Middle English baleyne, from Old French baleine (“whale, whalebone”), from Latin balaena (“whale”), from Ancient Greek φάλαινα (phálaina, “whale”).

uder

“You have probably never seen anything like this before, Mr. Toler. It is baleen, or if you prefer it, whalebone, taken from the mouth of the bowhead whale. It is used by the whale to filter its food.”

1954, Alexander Alderson, chapter 5, in The Subtle Minotaur:

(physiology, uncountable) The keratinous material that makes up the plates in the mouth of the baleen whale, Mysticeti, which it uses to trap its food; formerly used in corsetry.


mourner

non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger

rare, rhotic, with or without the horse–hoarse merger

rare, non-rhotic, with or without the horse–hoarse merger

From Middle English mourner, mornere, equivalent to mourn + -er.

Any of a number of suboscine birds in the related familes Tityridae and Tyrannidae.


Bactrian camel

Camelus bactrianus
Camelus bactrianus#Translingual

The camel with two humps, Camelus bactrianus, native to the steppes of Asia.


heterodont

/ˈhɛtəɹəʊdɒnt/

/ˈhɛtəɹəˌdɑnt/

From hetero- (prefix meaning ‘different’) + -odont (suffix meaning ‘tooth; toothed’). Hetero- is derived from Ancient Greek ἕτερος (héteros, “one or the other of two; different”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sem- (“together; one”); while -odont is from Ancient Greek ὀδούς (odoús, “tooth; tusk”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃ed- (“to bite”) + *-ónts (suffix forming nouns denoting body parts). By surface analysis, hetero- + -odont.

der

The second suborder (Macrosformes) corresponds with the Heteroderms of M. André Marie Constant Duméril. These are divided into seven families: […] 4. the Heterodonts, (Dendrophis, Coronella, &c.); […]

1841, “REPTILES”, in [George Long], editor, The Penny Cyclopædia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, volumes XIX (Primaticcio–Richardson), London: Charles Knight and Co., […], →OCLC, page 409, column 2:

A snake of the genus Heterodon which is native to North America.


Easter egg

/ˈiː.stəɹ ˌɛɡ/

Adventure (1980 video game)#Easter_egg
Easter egg

From Easter + egg. Cognate with German Low German Ooosterei (“Easter egg”), Middle High German ōsterei ("Easter egg"; > modern German Osterei).
So called because eggs would be eaten during Easter to break the fasting during Lent. (No eggs, dairy, meat except fish, lard, or foods containing these ingredients could be eaten during Lent.)
The computing sense is from the early 1980s, popularized by the video game Adventure.

gloss

"Easter egg"; > modern German <i class="Latn mention" lang="de">Osterei</i>

Because eggs were inexpensive in most regions, the practice of decorating Easter eggs crossed all social classes and remained somewhat simple.

2009, Ace Collins, chapter 23, in Stories Behind the Traditions and Songs of Easter:

A dyed or decorated egg, traditionally associated with Easter and, in the Western European tradition, sometimes hidden for children to find.


cardinal tetra

A freshwater fish (Paracheirodon axelrodi, family Characidae), native to rivers in South America, popular as an aquarium fish.


zorro

Lycalopex culpaeus
Lycalopex culpaeus#Translingual

A South American canid of the species Lycalopex culpaeus, visually similar to (and sometimes referred to as) a fox but more closely related to a wolf.


heifer

Inherited from Middle English heyfre, hayfre, heyfer, from Old English hēahfore, hēahfru, of disputed origin; see the Old English entry for more discussion.

And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, This is the ordinance of the law which the Lord hath commanded, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Numbers 19:1–2:

The breath of the mountain heifer was fragrant as the gales of Sirendiep, by feeding on ſpicy herbs.

1769, Firishta, translated by Alexander Dow, Tales translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi, volume I, Dublin: P. and W. Wilson et al., page iv:

A young female cow, (particularly) one over one year old but which has not calved.


armadillo

en-noun

armadillo (plural armadillos or armadilloes)

armadillos (plural)
armadilloes (plural)

/ɑɹməˈdɪloʊ/

/ɑːməˈdɪləʊ/

Borrowed from Spanish armadillo, diminutive of armado (“armored”), in reference to its protective plates.

The San Juan market is Mexico City's most famous deli of exotic meats, where an adventurous shopper can hunt down hard-to-find critters …. But the priciest items in the market aren't the armadillo steaks or even the bluefin tuna.

2013 July 26, Nick Miroff, “Mexico gets a taste for eating insects …”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 7, page 32:

Any of the burrowing mammals covered with bony, jointed, protective plates, order Cingulata, found in the Americas, especially in South America.

ib’ooy

burrowing mammal covered with bony, jointed, protective plates

three-banded armadillo

Tolypeutes matacus or Tolypeutes tricinctus


Sumatran tiger

Panthera tigris sondaica
Panthera tigris sondaica#Translingual

A population of Panthera tigris sondaica, found only on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.


Bengal tiger

Bengal tiger is considered sacred by Hindus and the antipodes (so-called no-caste tribes) living in the forests of India.[…]In addition to this, the health of forests is determined by the presence of Bengal tigers.

2011, Devidas K. Belsare, Vanishing Roar of Bengal Tigers, RoseDog Books, page ix:

Bengal tigers are endangered animals. Their numbers have been dropping for more than a century. In the early 1900s, about 40,000 Bengal tigers lived in India. Today, that number stands at around 1,400. About 400 more Bengal tigers live in nearby countries.

2012, Colleen A. Sexton, The Bengal Tiger, Bellwether Media, page 18:

Panthera tigris tigris
Panthera tigris tigris#Translingual

Any tiger of a specific, fragmented population of the subspecies Panthera tigris tigris in the Indian subcontinent.


Siberian tiger

A tiger of a specific Panthera tigris tigris population, now confined to Outer Manchuria in Russia.


bummer

From bum (“make unhappy”) + -er (agent noun suffix), originally US drug slang.

af

This young man never had a bummer in some 33 LSD trips. Every one of the them was a delight—everything under control. He needed only to snap his fingers, and down he came, anytime. But on Voyage 34, he finally met himself coming down an up staircase, and the encounter was crushing.

2000, “Phase I”, in Voyage 34: The Complete Trip, performed by Porcupine Tree:

(slang, dated, drug use) A psychedelic crisis; hallucinogenic drug use producing undesirable dysphoric psychological effects, most often fear, paranoia, and especially horrifying hallucinations; a bad trip.


titi

A New World monkey of the genus Callicebus, native to South America, distinguished by their long soft fur.


titi

A tree of the southern United States (Cliftonia monophylla) having glossy leaves and racemes of fragrant white flowers succeeded by one-seeded drupes.


kamao

An extinct bird of Hawaii, Myadestes myadestinus.


knag

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


cockatiel

From Dutch kaketielje, possibly a diminutive of kaketoe (“cockatoo”) or derived in Dutch from a diminutive of Portuguese cacatua (“cockatoo”) such as cacatilho or cacatelho. Attested in English since the mid nineteenth century.

The smaller parrakeets, such as budgerigars, turquoisines, and love birds, delight In going in and out of the cocoa nuts, but I never saw a cockatiel enter one, nor do I see how they could do so without detriment to their long tails.

1871, Norfolk (pseudonym), “Cockatiels”, in The Exchange and Mart, volume 4, number 139, page 481:

Nymphicus hollandicus
Nymphicus hollandicus#Translingual

Nymphicus hollandicus, a small, rather atypical cockatoo with a distinctive pointed yellow crest, native to Australia. Avicultural forms come in many color mutations such as White Face Gray, White Face Pearl, Fallow, Pearl Pied, Cinnamon Pearl, and White Face Pied.


hominid

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰmṓ
Proto-Italic *hemō
Latin hemō
Latin homōlbor.
Translingual Homo
Ancient Greek -ίδης (-ídēs)bor.
Latin -ideslbor.
Ancient Greek -ειδής (-eidḗs)influ.
Translingual -idae
Translingual Hominidaelbor.
English hominid
Learned borrowing from translingual Hominidae.

lbor

Any primate of the taxonomic family Hominidae, which includes all the nonhuman great apes (chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans) as well as humans.


pommel

From Middle English pomel, from Old French pomel and Medieval Latin pomellum, pumellum, presumedly via Vulgar Latin *pomellum (“ball, knob”), the diminutive of Late Latin pōmum (“apple”). Compare French pommeau and Spanish pomo.

The player, armed with a pommel, stands from two to three feet from the spell, places a knur in the cup which is held down by the rack.

1871, Edmund Routledge, Routledge's Every Boy's Annual:

The commonest method of playing the game, by the smaller boys of the village, was with a "sendstick," or pommel, and a wooden spell with a hole in one end to place the knur, which, when struck "tip-cat" like at the other end, threw the knur up to be struck at.

1886, William Smith, Morley: Ancient and Modern:

Next, the spring of the spell, at the end of which is a small brass cup to hold the knur, is adjusted by thumbscrews, so that when released by a touch of the pommel on the trigger, it will toss the knur a distance of six feet forward.

1911, The Encyclopaedia of sport & games, volume 3:

(sports, obsolete) The bat used in the game of knurr and spell or trap ball.


canine

From Latin canīnus (“of dogs, dog-like”), from canis (“dog”). Compare French canin.

In many respects she made me an admirable wife. Her affection for me was canine—positively.

1891, Arthur Quiller-Couch, “The Affair of Bleakirk-on-Sands,”, in Noughts & Crosses:

I look for reflections, in your face
Canine devotion, time can't erase
Out on the corner, locked in your room
I never believe them and I never assume

2000, Josh Homme, Nick Oliveri (lyrics and music), “The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret”, in Rated R, performed by Queens of the Stone Age:


turner

From Middle English turner, torner, tornere, turnere, turnare, equivalent to turn + -er. Also from Middle English turnour, tornour, tournour, turnoure, from Old French tornour, tourneour, tourneur, tornëor (“one who fashions something by turning”).

A kitchen utensil used for turning food.

(zoology) A variety of pigeon; a tumbler.


turner

(sports) An acrobat or gymnast, especially (historical) a member of the German Turnvereine, German-American gymnastic clubs that also served as nationalist political groups.


turner

(historical) An old Scottish copper coin worth two pence, issued by King James VI.


chow

en-noun

chow (usually uncountable, plural chows)

Shortened from chow-chow, from Chinese Pidgin English chow-chow. Compare Macanese chau-cháu. See also English chow fun, chow mein, etc.

These were the creatures Nawnim had been amazed to see about him on the day of his arrival. When he inquired about them, Anna told him they were Japs an' Chows.

1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter V, in Capricornia, page 74:

‘Now look here old man if you should ever bump into an interesting Chow from over the river – one with access, follow me? – just you remember High Haven!’

1977, John Le Carré, The Honourable Schoolboy, Folio Society, published 2010, page 11:

(chiefly Australia, slang, now rare) A Chinese person.


duck-billed platypus

duck-billed platypus (plural duck-billed platypuses)


closer

From Middle English closere, equivalent to close (verb) + -er.

(horse racing) A horse that performs best toward the end of a race.


John Dory

Unknown, many theories exist. See the Wikipedia article on John Dory for more.

An edible marine fish (Zeus faber or Zeus ocellata), having long dorsal spines.


twitch

twitch (countable and uncountable, plural twitches)

From Middle English twicchen, from Old English *twiċċan, from Proto-West Germanic *twikkijan (“to nail, pin, fasten, clasp, pinch”).
Cognate with English tweak, Low German twikken, German Low German twicken (“to pinch, pinch off”), zweckōn and gizwickan (> German zwicken (“to pinch”)).

cog

THE TWITCH is a short stick of strong ash, about the size of a mopstick, with a hole pierced near the end, through which is passed a piece of strong but small cord, and tied in a loop large enough to admit the open hand freely.

1861, John Henry Walsh, The Horse in the Stable and in the Field:

(farriery) A stick with a hole in one end through which passes a loop, which can be drawn tightly over the upper lip or an ear of a horse and twisted to keep the animal quiet during minor surgery.


troglodyte

/ˈtɹɒɡləʊdaɪt/

/ˈt͡ʃɹɑɡlədaɪt/

/ˈt͡ʃɹɑɡloʊdaɪt/

From Latin trōglodyta (“cave dwelling people”), from Ancient Greek τρωγλοδύτης (trōglodútēs, “one who dwells in holes”), from τρώγλη (trṓglē, “hole”) + δύω (dúō, “I get into”).

af

(computing) A person who chooses not to keep up to date with the latest software and hardware.


gill

From Middle English gille, gylle (“gill”), of North Germanic origin, akin to Danish gælle, Swedish gäl, Norwegian gjelle, and further to Old Norse gjǫlnar (“lips”), which also may have had the meaning of "gills" (based on Old Danish fiskegæln (“gills”)). The Old Norse word has been suggested as deriving from Proto-Germanic *gelunō (“jaw”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰel-, which would make it root-cognate to Ancient Greek χελύνη (khelúnē, “lip, jaw”), χεῖλος (kheîlos, “lip”).
Displaced native Old English ċīe.

cog

Gill nets are designed to catch a fish by the gills.


gill

From Middle English gille, from Old French gille (“a wine measure”), from Medieval Latin gillo (“earthenware jar”).

der

(archaic, British) A measuring jug holding a quarter or half a pint.

(dated, US) A unit of measure equal to 4 US fluid ounces (half a cup, a quarter of a US pint), approximately 118 milliliters.


pigsty

Coordinate term: (sometimes synonymous) hoghouse

The lower pasture also contains a pigsty.

An enclosure where pigs are kept, either a building or part of one.


owlish

en-adj

owlish (comparative more owlish, superlative most owlish)

more owlish (comparative)
most owlish (superlative)

1914, Theodore Dreiser, The Titan, Chapter 26, http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks/fr100299.txt
"You're very right," he said, with owlish smugness, adjusting a waistcoat button that had come loose, and smoothing his cuffs.

He feebly wanted to get out of this, away from clucking nurses and Dr. Crittenham's owlish peering and the horrible scrambled eggs and cold toast.

1951, Sinclair Lewis, chapter 2, in World So Wide:

This owl imitated Trumpkin’s voice rather well, and there were sounds of owlish laughter all round.

1953, C. S. Lewis, chapter 4, in The Silver Chair, Collins, published 1998:


poodle

From German Pudel, a shortened form of Pudelhund, a compound of Hund (“dog”) and the German Low German term Pudel, Pūdel (“puddle”), from the onomatopoeic term pudeln (“to splash about”).

Unnamed Vato 1: Maybe I do have more issues than a magazine stand, but all those magazines are puro fancy. I never wanted to be a vato. I just want to groom and train poodles.
Mocho: I secretly groom and train poodles.
Chalaza: Are you guys messing with me? Whenever you turn your back, I secretly groom and train poodles. Watch. Turn your back. I'm doing it. I'm doing it!
Unnamed Vato 1: I can't see. My back is turned.

2007, Xavier: Renegade Angel, season 1, episode 2:

A breed of dog originating in Europe as hunting dogs, and having heavy, curly coat in a solid color; their shoulder height indicates their classification as standard, medium, miniature, or toy.


sweeper

From Middle English swepere, swepare, equivalent to sweep + -er. Cognate with Middle Low German swēpære, swēper (“broom for sweeping up debris”).


egg salad

en-noun

egg salad (usually uncountable, plural egg salads)

A dish made primarily of chopped hard-boiled eggs and mayonnaise, often including other ingredients such as celery or mustard; it is frequently used as a sandwich spread.


zeedonk

Tigons, ligers and a zeedonk have also been created by miscegenating mammals.

1985, Hartson & Dawson, The Ultimate Irrelevant Encyclopedia, page 66:

One might have imagined that it could only have been Dr. Seuss who had thought up and named the zedonk—the animal produced when a male zebra mates with a female donkey!

1997, Thomas Fensch, Of Sneetches and Whos and the Good Dr. Seuss http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&id=iDR_UvtiD_sC&pg=PA103&lpg=PA103&sig=qB-nL70ow8Z_m8e1cm9518ykKX4

2003, Colin Bell, GCSE Applied Science Student Book http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&id=WIBBzP4MtvcC&pg=PA42&lpg=PA42&sig=SVuPX8k4sQZ0y2HPWbm68LKgzQU
Suggest which animals are the parents of the cross breeds, zedonk and tiglion.

2004, Kevin O'Hara, Last of the Donkey Pilgrims http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&id=IFUBfHAkYmoC&pg=PA184&lpg=PA184&sig=BaUIPzeYmdCHT2sMYfzqa4NPPsI
I could have told him about zedonks and zebrasses; donkey cures for whooping cough and gout, how an onager is a wild ass from Central Asia; that the Australian kookaburra is nicknamed “the laughing donkey”; …


ovulate

en-verb

ovulate (third-person singular simple present ovulates, present participle ovulating, simple past and past participle ovulated)

ovulates (present singular third-person)
ovulating (participle present)
ovulated (participle past)
ovulated (past)

From ovul(e) + -ate (verb-forming suffix). Compare French ovuler.

Other studies have shown that women living near the equator have a marked tendency to ovulate during the full moon.

1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 96:


zorse

The offspring of a male zebra and a female horse.


herring

From Middle English hering, from Old English hǣring, from Proto-West Germanic *hāring (“herring”), further etymology unknown. Possibly derived from Proto-Germanic *hērą (“hair”) + -ing, due to the similarity of their fine bones to hair. Cognate with Scots hering, haring (“herring”), Saterland Frisian Hiering, Häiring (“herring”), West Frisian hjerring (“herring”), Dutch haring (“herring”), German Low German Hereng, Hering (“herring”), German Hering (“herring”), Bavarian Haring (“herring”). Late Latin haringus (whence French hareng, etc.) is borrowed from Germanic.

Then he commenced to talk, really talk. and inside of two flaps of a herring's fin he had me mesmerized, like Eben Holt's boy at the town hall show. He talked about the ills of humanity, and the glories of health and Nature and service and land knows what all.

1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter IV, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

A type of small, oily fish of the genus Clupea, often used as food.

Fish similar to those in genus Clupea, many of those in the order Clupeiformes.


clodhopper

Compound of clod + hopper (agentive form of the verb hop). Perhaps affected by analogy with grasshopper. Attested in the sense of "peasant" since the seventeenth century; the extended sense of "boot" or "shoe" dates from the nineteenth century.

Smiling Jim Mead of New York tries on his GI clodhopper boots. He decided to return them "because we couldn't make any altitude with those aboard."

1943 August 16, “Senators go global: Five will fly to all fronts”, in LIFE Magazine:

(military slang) United States Navy ankle length work shoes, distinct from dress shoes or combat boots.


squalid

Numerous diet studies on squalids have shown that members of this family tend to feed mainly on teleosts and cephalopods[…]

2008, David A. Ebert, James A. Sulikowski, Biology of Skates, page 126:

(zoology) Any member of the family Squalidae of dogfish sharks.


minx

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-minx.wav

The Minx […] frequents the water like the Otter, and very much reſembles it in ſhape and color, but is leſs; will abide longer under the water than the muſk quaſh, muſk rat, or little beaver: […]

1771, Thomas Pennant, quoting John Bartram, “Otter”, in Synopsis of Quadrupeds, Chester, Cheshire: […] J. Monk, →OCLC, page 240:

Many of these birds are destroyed by Weasels and Minxes.

1831, John James Audubon, “The Great Carolina Wren. Troglodytes ludovicianus, Ch. Bonaparte. […]”, in Ornithological Biography, or An Account of the Habits of the Birds of the United States of America; […], Edinburgh: Adam Black, […], →OCLC, page 401:

2d. Carnivora, or flesh eaters. Of these we have […] the New York ermine, or ermine weasel; the mink, or minx otter; the common otter; […]

1847, J. H. Mather, L. P. Brockett, “Zoology. [Class I. Mammalia.]”, in Geography of the State of New York. […], Hartford, Conn.: J. H. Mather & Co. [et al.], →OCLC, page 39:

We next come to the mink or minx otter (Putorius Vison) which is the only animal of the genus mustela inhabiting the northern parts of America that can be said to live in the water, and the name of "fisher" could with much justice be transferred from its present bearer to the mink.

[1876], Charles Henry Eden, chapter VII, in The Home of the Wolverene and Beaver; or, Fur-hunting in the Wilds of Canada, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; New York, N.Y.: Pott, Young & Co., →OCLC, page 153:

There is, however, scarcely any distinction in the other portions of the dress of the sexes [of southeastern Alaskan natives], except that the skin coats or tunics of the women and the facings of the bonnet or hood (worn by both sexes) are more elaborately decorated with minx, otter, or seal fur about the throat, and down the front, than those of the men.

1893 March, John H. Keatley, “Under the Arctic Circle”, in B[enjamin] O[range] Flower, editor, The Arena, volume VII, number XL, Boston, Mass.: Arena Publishing Co., →OCLC, page 491:

obsolete spelling of mink (“any of various semi-aquatic, carnivorous mammals in the Mustelinae subfamily”)..


Grand National

The premier steeplechase (horse race over fences) in the United Kingdom


kipper

From Old English cypera (“male salmon”), perhaps related to Old English coper (“reddish-brown metal”) (see copper), on resemblance of color. Another theory connects it to kip (“sharp, hooked lower jaw of the male salmon in breeding season”), from Middle English kippen (“to seize, snatch”), but OED doubts this.

inh

Kipper, I discovered, was airman's slang for a fishing boat. The chief function of this particular station was the escorting of convoys and fishing fleets, and the section which had the latter duty to perform was known as the ‘Kipper Patrol’.

Kipper-kites, aircraft engaged on convoy escort duties over the North Sea and usually giving protection to the fishing-vessels.

1943, J. L. Hunt, A. G. Pringle, Service Slang, page 42:

(military, RAF World War II code name) A patrol to protect fishing boats in the Irish and North Seas against attack from the air.


minnow

The noun is derived from Late Middle English menew, menowe (“small fish; (specifically) common minnow (Phoxinus phoxinus); or stickleback (possibly the three-spined stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus)”), from Old English *mynwe, an oblique form of *mynu, a variant of myne (“minnow; small fish”), from Proto-West Germanic *muniwu (“minnow; small fish”), from Proto-Indo-European *men- (“small”). Possibly influenced by Anglo-Norman menu (“small”) and Old French menu (“small”), and English minim (“anything very minute; applied to animalcula and the like”).
The adjective and verb are derived from the noun.
cognates
* Middle Low German mone, möne (Dutch meun, West Frisian meun)
* Old High German muniwa, munuwa, munewa (modern German Münne (“minnow”))
* Latin mēna (“small sea-fish”)

cog

Most minnows are small fish with cycloid scales, soft rays supporting their fins, and toothless jaws. Some possess barbels on their upper jaw, and many species develop nuptial tubercles during the breeding season. […] Minnows are arguably the most difficult group of freshwater fishes to identify, in part because they are often small and thus the characters distinguishing them are correspondingly small.

2004, Robert G. Werner, “Carps and Minnows: Family Cyprinidae”, in Freshwater Fishes of the Northeastern United States: A Field Guide, Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, →ISBN, page 74:

Phoxinus phoxinus
Phoxinus phoxinus#Translingual

The common minnow (Phoxinus phoxinus), a small freshwater fish of the carp family Cyprinidae which has a green back with black elongated blotches, commonly swimming in large shoals.

Chiefly with a qualifying word: any of a number of other (small) fish from the family Cyprinidae; also (chiefly US), other small (usually freshwater) fish from other families.

karppi

any of a number of other (small) fish from the family Cyprinidae; other small (usually freshwater) fish from other families

galaxiid

(Australia, New Zealand) Synonym of galaxiid (“any member of the family Galaxiidae of mostly small freshwater fish of the Southern Hemisphere”); specifically, the common galaxias, inanga, or jollytail (Galaxias maculatus).

In quiet, sheltered places, where the water is clear but does not run too swiftly, the ‘minnie,’ as the stickleback is locally called, makes its nest by the bank. […] On these fibres the ova are deposited, and they are then either purposely partly covered with sand by the minnie, or else the particles that are brought down by the current gather over the bundle of fibres and conceal it, excepting one small spot.

1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter XIX, in Wild Life in a Southern County […], London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 356:

(British, regional) Synonym of stickleback (family Gasterosteidae).

I have obſerved, as I have ſat by a ſpout of vvater, vvhich decſends from a ſtone trough about tvvo feet into a ſtream belovv, at particular ſeaſons of the year, a great number of little fiſh called minums, or pinks, throvv themſelves about tvventy times their ovvn length out of the vvater, expecting to get into the trough above.

1794, Erasmus Darwin, “Sect. XVI. Of Instinct.”, in Zoonomia; or, The Laws of Organic Life, volume I, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC, paragraph 6, page 175:

I wonder King George is let venture down on this coast, where he might be snapped up in a moment like a minnow by a her'n, so near as we be to the field of Boney's vagaries!

1904, Thomas Hardy, The Dynasts: A Drama of the Napoleonic Wars, […], part first, London: Macmillan and Co.: New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, Act II, scene iv, page 74:

During the past week he had indulged in sundry sly purchases, […] They included […] a remarkable collection of fishing tackle, which the sporting-goods man had declared fitted to catch anything that swam, from a whale to a minnow.

1908, Edith Van Dyne [pseudonym: Lyman Frank Baum], “The Agent”, in Aunt Jane’s Nieces at Millville, Chicago, Ill.: The Reilly & Britton Co., →OCLC, page 23:


minnow

en-verb

minnow (third-person singular simple present minnows, present participle minnowing, simple past and past participle minnowed)

minnows (present singular third-person)
minnowing (participle present)
minnowed (participle past)
minnowed (past)

To fish for minnows (noun sense 1 and subsenses).


shoemaker

From Middle English shomaker, equivalent to shoe + maker. Compare Dutch schoenmaker, German Schuhmacher, Danish skomager.

A fish, Elagatis pinnulatis, the runner.


whim

en-noun

whim (countable and uncountable, plural whims)

Let ev’ry Man enjoy his whim; / What’s He to Me, or I to him?

1763, Charles Churchill, The Ghost, book IV, J. Coote, →OCLC, page 137:

The king was tired of this whim of hers long ago, and thought she ought to get married like other people; there was nothing she need wait for, she was old enough and she would not be any richer either, for she was to have half the kingdom, which she inherited after her mother.

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 269:

“You’re either with me or you’re against me” became Dany’s credo, and those against her were an ever-changing multitude to be determined solely by her whims.

2019 May 19, Alex McLevy, “The final Game Of Thrones brings a pensive but simple meditation about stories (newbies)”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2019-05-22:

A fanciful impulse, or sudden change of idea.

(mining) A large capstan or vertical drum turned by horse power or steam power, for raising ore or water, etc., from mines, or for other purposes


whim

en-verb

whim (third-person singular simple present whims, present participle whimming, simple past and past participle whimmed)

whims (present singular third-person)
whimming (participle present)
whimmed (participle past)
whimmed (past)

(rare, intransitive) To be seized with a whim; to be capricious.


warren

From Middle English warenne, from Anglo-Norman and Old Northern French warenne (compare Old French guarenne, garenne (“game-park”)), probably ultimately from Frankish *warjan, from Proto-Germanic *warjaną (“ward off, defend against”); compare also Old French warir, guarir, a borrowing from this Germanic root. Alternatively from Gaulish *warrennā (“enclosed area”), from *warros (“stick, post”), Proto-Celtic *warrā (“post, prop”).

der

The largest warren in group 9 had 10 entrances in use and 11 not in use.

1986, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (Australia), Australian Wildlife Research, page 332:

A system of burrows in which rabbits live.

konijnenheuvel

the system of burrows where rabbits live

A forest is a certen territorie of wooddy grounds and fruitfull pasrues, priviledged for wild beast and foules of forest, chase, and warren to rest and abide in, in the safe protection of the king for his princely delight and pleasure, which territorie of ground, so priviledged, is meered and bounded with unremoveable marks, meeres, and boundaries, either known by matter of record or els by presceription;

Free warren is a franchise , erected for the preservation or custody ( which the word signifies ) of beasts and fowls of warren; which , being feræ naturæ , every one had a natural right to kill as he could : but upon the introduction of the forest laws, at the period of the Norman conquest, these animals being looked upon as royal game and the sole property of our savage monarchs, this franchise of free-warren was invented to protect them; by giving the grantee a sole and exclusive power of killing such game so far as his warren extended, on condition of his preventing other persons. A man therefore that has the franchise of a warren, is in reality no more than a royal gamekeeper; but no man, not even a lord of a manor, could by common law justify sporting on another's soil, unless he had the liberty of free-warren.

1823, Thomas Burgeland Johnson, The Shooter's Companion, page 296:

Grouse are not birds of warren ( 2 ); and trespass on a free warren will not lie for shooting them .

1844, Archibald John Stephens, George Sharswood, The Law of Nisi Prius, page 2003:

The franchise of free warren is to be claimed only by grant from the crown, or by prescription which supposes such a grant (n); and the effect of it is, to vest in the grantee a property in such wild animals or inferior specieis of game as are deemed to beasts and fowls of warren (0).

1867, John Scriven, A Treatise on Copyholds. Customary Freeholds, Ancient Demesne, and the Jurisdiction of Courts Baron and Courts Leet, page 477:

(archaic) The class of small game such as hare, pheasants, stoats, etc., as opposed to beasts of chase such as deer, bear, and foxes.

And when the play was over, this John Adroyns in the evening departed from the market town to go home; and because he had there no change of clothing, he went forth in his devil's apparel; and his way lay through a warren of rabbits, belonging to a gentleman of the village, where he himself dwelt; at which time it happened that a priest, a vicar of the church, with two or three other idle fellows, brought with them a horse, a snare, and a ferret, to take the rabbits; and when the ferret was in the earth, and the snare set over the path where this John Adroyns should come, the priest and his fellows, seeing him coming, and considering they were in the devil's service, by stealing the rabbits though it was the devil indeed, ran away for fear.

Now warrenders tell us, and we are convinced of the fact from repeated experience, that if a wounded or dying rabbit get into a burrow, none of the living ones will ever pass it: they will die in their holes first; so that a single wounded or dead animal will cause the death of perhaps a score of their own kind in the same locality. This becomes a real loss to the proprietor of a warren.

1854, Robert Blakely, Shooting, page 159:

This warren is the flat at the summit of an exceedingly high mountain, and consists of, I think, the very worst land I ever saw in my life.

1888, Richard John Lloyd Price, Rabbits for Profit and Rabbits for Powder, page 32:

As to the privileges of an owner of a free warren, he may not only prosecute a trespasser who is in pursuit of beasts and fowls of warren, whether he be a stranger in the locality, or a tenant of lands within the limits of the free warren, but he may also kill any dogs found hunting in his warren, whether they are doing damage at the time or not.

1898, James Edmund Harting, Alexander Innes Shand, The Rabbit, page 55:

Commission of oyer and terminer to Robert de Morle, John de Shardelowe, William Giffard and John de Hemenhale, on complaint by Edward de Monte Acuto that Giles de Wyngefeld, Ranulph de Wyngefeld and other broke his part at Ersham, co. Norfolk, hunted therein and in his free warren, fished in his several fishery there, carried away fish and deer with hares and rabbits from his warren, and assaulted his men and servants.

1900, Great Britain. Public Record Office, Calendar of the Patent Rolls Preserved in the Public Record, page 102:

A place legally authorized for the keeping, breeding and hunting of beasts of warren, especially rabbits.

warenne

a place legally authorized for the keeping, breeding and hunting of beasts of warren, especially rabbits

Free-warren confers the property in wild animals, and that property may be claimed (a) in the land of another, to the exclusion of the owner of the soil; for in ancient times persons summoned to parliament often obtaine from the Crown grants of warren in their demesne lands, comprising such parts of their manors or honours as then were, or might come into their actual possession; but the grant of warren (b) to a party in all his demsne lands, does not extend over the lands of freeholders of the manor, as such grants are construed strictly.

1845, John Smith Furlong, A Treatise on the Law of Landlord and Tenant, page 337:

The defendant has pleaded a warren in gross: he does not make it appendant or appurtenant. He shews merely that Charles I. granted a free warren, as he might do.

1910, The English Reports - Volume 110, page 1361:

Henry de Greye claims to have many franchises in Toveton by Charter of King Henry, that is to say a warren.

1951, Keith Sydney Sayer Train, A Second Miscellany of Nottinghamshire Records, page 52:

Warren grants contained prohibitions on fishing more frequently than forest grants did.

1988, David Maxwell Walker, A Legal History of Scotland: The beginnings to A.D. 1286, page 379:

(historical) The right to maintain and hunt an area of small beasts, similar to a free warren, but with certain limitations, such as restricting the right to hunt on parts of the land held by freeholders.


steeplechase

Compound of steeple + chase, from horse races in 18th century Ireland in which orientation of the course was by reference to a church steeple.

(chiefly British, equestrianism) A horse race, either across open country, or over an obstacle course.


parr

en-noun

parr (countable and uncountable, plural parrs or parr)

Compare Scottish Gaelic bradan (“salmon”).
For the salmon life stage, the word originates from the Middle English parren (“to enclose”), referring to the spots running along the side of the fish, resembling the bars of a fence.

Young salmon, at a stage between fry and smolt when they feed chiefly on invertebrates but cannot tolerate saltwater.


dragoon

en-verb

dragoon (third-person singular simple present dragoons, present participle dragooning, simple past and past participle dragooned)

dragoons (present singular third-person)
dragooning (participle present)
dragooned (participle past)
dragooned (past)

Battle of Cerro Gordo
Battle of Jena–Auerstedt
Mexican–American War
Smithsonian Institution
Édouard Detaille

The noun is borrowed from French dragon (“dragon (mythological creature); type of cavalry soldier, dragoon”) (originally referring to a soldier armed with the firearm of the same name (sense 1.1)), ultimately from Latin dracō (“dragon; kind of serpent or snake”), from Ancient Greek δρᾰ́κων (drákōn, “dragon; serpent”), possibly from δέρκομαι (dérkomai, “to see, see clearly (in the sense of something staring)”), from Proto-Indo-European *derḱ- (“to see”)). Doublet of Draco, dracone, and dragon.
The verb is either derived:
* from the noun; or
* from French dragonner (“to force (someone) into doing something, coerce; to torment (oneself)”), from dragon (noun) (see above) + -er (suffix forming infinitives of first-conjugation verbs).

ref

From the collection of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., United States.

From the collection of the Musée de l'Armée (Army Museum) in Paris, France.

der

She [Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné] appears to have exulted in the extirpation of protestantism in Provence, by the power of her son-in-law, count de Gregnan [i.e., François Adhémar de Monteil, Comte de Grignan]; she even speaks with levity of the sufferings of the huguenots, dragooned into the bosom of the true church.

1803, Mary Hays, “The Marchioness de Sevigne”, in Female Biography; or, Memoirs of Illustrious and Celebrated Women, of All Ages and Countries. […], volume VI, London: […] Richard Phillips, […] by Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, page 401:

This was the pious lady [Ninon de l’Enclos] who, in after times, expiated the faults of her youth by dragooning Huguenots into Catholics.

1845 June, “Art. V.—Lives of Men of Letters and Science who Flourished in the Time of George III. By Henry Lord Brougham. Knight and Co. [book review]”, in The Westminster Review, American edition, volume XLIII, number LXXXV, New York, N.Y.: Leonard Scott & Co., […], →OCLC, footnote *, page 191, column 1:

(Christianity, French politics, historical) To subject (a Huguenot) to the dragonnades (“a policy instituted by Louis XIV of France in 1681 to intimidate Protestant Huguenots to convert to Roman Catholicism by billeting dragoons (noun sense 1.2) in their homes to abuse them and destroy or steal their possessions”).

antaa dragonnadeille

to subject (a Huguenot) to the dragonnades


waxwing

I was the shadow of the waxwing slain
By the false azure in the windowpane;
I was the smudge of ashen fluff—and I
Lived on, flew on, in the reflected sky.

1962, Charles Kinbote [pseudonym; Vladimir Nabokov], Pale Fire, New York, N.Y.: Berkley Books, published November 1985, →ISBN:

Any of several songbirds of the genus Bombycilla, having crested heads, and red tips to the wings.


souped-up

en-adj

souped-up (comparative more souped-up, superlative most souped-up)

more souped-up (comparative)
most souped-up (superlative)

Uncertain; the fact that the earlier senses seem to be the horse racing cant and United States Navy slang ones suggests a derivation from soup (“liquid food item”), connoting a horse or a person being filled with a liquid.
Alternatively, it has been suggested that the term is a modified clipping of supe(r), with reference to an aeroplane or automobile engine being supercharged: see, for example, the 1925 quotation. This sense appears to post-date the horse-racing and navy slang senses.

(horse racing, cant) Of a racehorse: injected with a substance to make it run faster or to change its temperament.

napumpan

of a racehorse: injected with a substance to make it run faster


gelding

From Middle English geldyng (“eunuch”), from Old Norse geldingr (“wether, eunuch”), from gelda (“to castrate”). By surface analysis, geld (“to castrate”) + -ing (diminutive suffix).


black jack

en-noun

black jack (countable and uncountable, plural black jacks)

A beggartick (Bidens spp., family of Asteraceae)

There is a sort of black caterpillar called a black jack, which is seldom seen; but when they do come, they make terrible havock.

1807, Richard Parkinson, The Experienced Farmer, Enlarged and Improved, page 370:

(obsolete) The larva of a turnip sawfly (Athalia rosae)


feral cat

(zoology) A domestic cat that has returned to or was born in a living situation without human care.


microtine

From scientific Latin Microtinae , a subfamily name, from Microtus + -inae.

Any rodent of the former subfamily Microtinae (now Arvicolinae)


wholphin

Tursiops truncatus
Tursiops truncatus#Translingual

The fertile hybrid produced by cross-breeding a bottlenose dolphin Tursiops truncatus (mother), and a false killer whale Pseudorca crassidens (father).


yolk

yolk (countable and uncountable, plural yolks)

From Middle English yolke, yelke, ȝolke, ȝelke, from Old English ġeolca, ġeoloca, ġioleca (“the yellow part, yolk”), from ġeolu (“yellow”).

To make meringue, you have to separate the white from the yolk.

The yellow, spherical part of an egg that is surrounded by the white albumen, and serves as nutriment for the growing young.

кӏэнкӏэ кугъу

kʼɛnkʼɛ kʷuğʷu

джэдыкӏэ кугъуэ

džɛdəkʼɛ kʷuğʷɛ

Wool-growers appear to entertain different opinions in regard to the effect which yolk has on the value of the fleece. Some seem to suppose that the aggregate amount which they receive for their wool is increased from the greater weight which it possesses by being charged with this substance[…]

The grease in a sheep's fleece; lanolin.


yolk

en-verb

yolk (third-person singular simple present yolks, present participle yolking, simple past and past participle yolked)

yolks (present singular third-person)
yolking (participle present)
yolked (participle past)
yolked (past)

This is surprising in that these females were yolking up their clutch of eggs

1981, Barbara Rae Rose, Activity and Reproduction in Iguanid Lizards, page 12:


tidy

en-adj

tidy (comparative tidier, superlative tidiest)

tidier (comparative)
tidiest (superlative)

From Middle English tidy, tydy, tidi (“timely, seasonal, opportune”), from tide (“time”) + -y. Cognate with Saterland Frisian tiedig (“timely, early”), Dutch tijdig (“timely”), German Low German tiedig (“timely”), German zeitig (“seasonal, timely”), Danish tidig (“timely”), Swedish tidig (“timely”).

cog

if weather be fair and tidy

1573, Thomas Tusser, Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry:

(obsolete) In good time; at the right time; timely; seasonable; opportune; favourable; fit; suitable.


pullet

From Middle English polet, pulet, from Anglo-Norman pullet, Old French poulet (“young chicken”); polette (“young hen”), from poule (“hen”). Doublet of poult. Compare also Middle English pulle.


egg white

en-noun

egg white (countable and uncountable, plural egg whites)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-egg white.wav

Probably a remodelled form of Middle English whit of an egge (“white of an egg”). Compare Old Norse eggja-hvíta (“egg-white”), German Eiweiß.

der

The clear part of an egg surrounding the yolk, which turns white when cooked or beaten.


sika

Cervus nippon
Cervus nippon#Translingual

Cervus nippon, a deer found in the forests of East Asia


sika

In the past sikas were made within the family and its purchase and sale was not so noticeable.

2003, Sirajul Islam, Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh, volume 7, →ISBN, page 207:

A traditional Bangladeshi hanging basket


whippoorwill

/ˈʍɪp.ɚˌwɪl/

“Seems like I heard a whippoorwill callinʼ, and I thought to myself, Go on away from here, weʼll whip ole Will when we find him.”

1952, Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, Penguin Books (2014), page 55:

Caprimulgus vociferus
Caprimulgus vociferus#Translingual

A nocturnal insectivorous bird of North America (Antrostomus vociferus, syn. Caprimulgus vociferus), a type of nightjar, named after its characteristic call.


runt

The OED classifies this word as "of obscure origin". Some see a connection to Middle Dutch runt (“ox”), but the OED considers this to be unlikely.

unk

obscure

(networking) An Ethernet packet that does not meet the medium's minimum packet size of 64 bytes.


wild goose

any of many species of wildlife goose, such as the greylag goose or the Canada goose, whose wedge fly in a wedge or V form, or cuneiform, as opposed to the domesticated goose that would not fly.


albumen

en-noun

albumen (countable and uncountable, plural albumens or albumina)

From Latin albūmen (“white of an egg”), from albus (“white”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂élbʰos (“white”).

The various elements found in food are the following: Starch, sugar, fats, albumen, mineral substances, indigestible substances.

1892, Ella Eaton Kellogg, “Foods”, in Science in the Kitchen: A Scientific Treatise on Food Substances and Their Dietetic Properties, Together with a Practical Explanation of the Principles of Healthful Cookery, and a Large Number of Original, Palatable, and Wholesome Recipes, Revised edition, Michigan: Health Publishing Company, page 25:

The white part of an egg; being mostly the protein albumin and water.


whitebait

whitebait (countable and uncountable, plural whitebaits)

The young of various species of fish, especially herrings, sprats or smelts

Food prepared from such fish, often deep fried and served as a starter or snack.


whitebait

en-verb

whitebait (third-person singular simple present whitebaits, present participle whitebaiting, simple past and past participle whitebaited)

whitebaits (present singular third-person)
whitebaiting (participle present)
whitebaited (participle past)
whitebaited (past)


lunette

Unadapted borrowing from French lunette, diminutive of lune (“moon”).

(farriery) A half horseshoe, lacking the sponge.


whinny

From Middle English whynyen, whinien, akin to Middle English whinen (“to whine”).

Coordinate term: (sometimes synonymous) nicker

And moving out they found the stately horse, / Who now no more a vassal to the thief, / But free to stretch his limbs in lawful fight, / Neigh'd with all gladness as they came, and stoop'd / With a low whinny toward the pair: […]

1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Enid”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, pages 85–86:


whinny

whinny (third-person singular simple present whinnies, present participle whinnying, simple past and past participle whinnied)

whinnies (present singular third-person)
whinnying (participle present)
whinnied (participle past)
whinnied (past)

Cattle lowed here and there, and horses whinnied to be fed.

1904 May, Winston Churchill, The Crossing, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, book I (The Borderland), page 240:

A pony whinnied a short distance from the hut.

1914 October – 1916 July, Edgar Rice Burroughs, chapter XIII, in The Mucker, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., published 31 October 1921, →OCLC:

[John Gray] whinnies like a donnish Houyhnhnm[.]

2014 January 28, Will Self, “John Gray: Forget everything you know”, in Independent, retrieved 2021-03-03:

(transitive, intransitive, of a horse) To make a gentle neigh.


wineskin

Coordinate term: waterskin

A bag, traditionally made from the skin of a goat (a goatskin), used for holding and dispensing wine.


rafter

/ˈɹɑːftə(ɹ)/


laughing dove

Spilopelia senegalensis
Spilopelia senegalensis#Translingual

A small pigeon (Spilopelia senegalensis) native to the tropics in Africa south of the Sahara; the Middle East; and southern Asia east to India.


boatswain-bird

Phaethon aethereus
Phaethon aethereus#Translingual

A tropical bird, Phaethon aethereus, often found far from land, whose cry resembles the whistle of a boatswain's pipe.


blue peter

The flag, serving as a signal of recall for departure, was used by the British Navy from 1777, and the name “blue peter” had become common by the end of the 18th century. An all-blue flag had earlier seen use for the same purpose by the Dutch East India Company. While “blue” obviously refers to the dominant colour of the flag, the origin of the second part of the term, “peter”, is unknown. Often said to be a corruption of “blue repeater”, there is actually no signal flag that goes by that designation. The use of the flag to spell the letter “P” dates from 1857 and so cannot have played a role in the origin of the term.
The whist play, introduced by Lord Henry Bentinck, was named by him after the flag.

(card games, intransitive) In whist, a play that calls for trumps by throwing away a higher card of a suit while holding a lower one.


croup

From Middle English croupe, from Old French croupe (“rump, body”), from Old Norse kroppr (“body, trunk, mass”), from Proto-Germanic *kruppaz (“body, mass, heap, collection, crop”), from Proto-Indo-European *grewb- (“to curve, bend, crawl”). More at crupper, doublet of croupe, group, and crop.

der

So light to the croup the fair lady he swung, / So light to the saddle before her he sprung.

1808 February 22, Walter Scott, “(please specify the introduction or canto number, or chapter name)”, in Marmion; a Tale of Flodden Field, Edinburgh: […] J[ames] Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Company, […]; London: William Miller, and John Murray, →OCLC:

The guib [a kind of antelope] is of the mean dimensions, or four feet and a half in total length, and two and a half high at the shoulders, but rather higher at the croup.

1835, Charles Frederick Partington, The British cyclopædia of natural history:

The top of the rump of a horse or other quadruped.


croup

en-verb

croup (third-person singular simple present croups, present participle crouping, simple past and past participle crouped)

croups (present singular third-person)
crouping (participle present)
crouped (participle past)
crouped (past)

From Scots croup, croop (“the croup”), from Scots croup, crowp, croop (“to croak, speak hoarsely, murmur, complain”), from Old Scots crowp, crope, croap (“to call loudly, croak”), alteration of rowp, roup, roip, rope (“to cry, cry hoarsely, roop”), from Middle English roupen, ropen, from Old English hrōpan (“to shout, proclaim; cry out, scream, howl”), from Proto-Germanic *hrōpaną (“to shout”), from Proto-Indo-European *ker-, *kor- (“to caw, crow”). More at roop.

der

(obsolete outside dialects) To croak, make a hoarse noise.


croup

(pathology) An infectious illness of the larynx, especially in young children, causing respiratory difficulty.


boatswain

From Middle English botswain, botswein, bote-swayn, from late Old English bātsweġen, from bāt (“boat”) + sweġen (“swain”), the latter element a borrowing from Old Norse sveinn (“boy”); equivalent to boat + swain (“boy, servant”).

The petty officer of a merchant ship who controls the work of other seamen.


scrambled egg

en-noun

scrambled egg (countable and uncountable, plural scrambled eggs)

The gold braid sense is by fancied resemblance to the literal sense, with irreverence implied.

(usually in the plural) A dish made by beating and cooking eggs, sometimes mixed with milk, and typically stirred while cooking.


impost

Borrowed from Middle French impost, itself borrowed or adapted from Latin impōsitus, past participle of impōnō (“I impose”).

(horse racing, slang) The weight that must be carried by a horse in a race; the handicap.


chanter

From Middle English chauntour, from Old French chanteor, from Latin cantor; equivalent to chant + -er. Compare French chanteur. Doublet of cantor.


whiting

From Middle English whityng, whytyng, perhaps an alteration of Old English hwītling (“whiting”), remodelled after white + -ing (diminutive suffix). Related to the colour white. Cognate with Dutch wijting (“whiting”), Old Norse hvítingr (“a kind of whale”).

Merlangius merlangus
Merlangius merlangus#Translingual

Any fish of many species that resemble Merlangius merlangus:

(US) Any of several marine fish found in North American coastal waters, including hakes (genus Merluccius), especially Merluccius bilinearis (silver hake).


sheepdog

(US, slang, law enforcement) A police officer.


rara avis

rara avis (plural rara avises or rarae aves or (obsolete) raræ aves)

rara avises (plural)
rarae aves (plural)
raræ aves (obsolete plural)

/ˌɹɑːɹə ˈeɪvɪs/

/ˌɹɑɹə ˈeɪvɪs/

/ˌɹɑːɹiː ˈeɪviːs/

Unadapted borrowing from Latin rāra avis (“rare bird”). The synonym rare bird is attested earlier. The term is a quotation from Satire VI (written late 1st century – early 2nd century B.C.E.) of the Roman poet Juvenal: “Rara avis in terris, nigroque simillima cygno [a bird as rare upon the earth as a black swan]!”.
The plural form rarae aves is a learned borrowing from Latin rārae avēs.

nb...

a Dissertation on the Life and Writings of Juvenal; a Treatise on Latin Versification; and an Index, Historical, Geographical, Explanatory, and Referential. 􂀿...􂁀 A New Edition, Critically Revised, Improved, and Linearly Arranged, from the Original Version of the Rev. John Stirling, D.D.

Paternoster Row; Whittaker and Co. Ave Maria Lane; and Simpkin and Marshall, Stationers’ Hall Court.

That Parsons girl is quite the rara avis if you ask me.

And yet I knovv a Man vvho is all I have here deſcribed. But a ſingle Inſtance (and I really knovv not ſuch another) is not ſufficient to juſtify us, […] Such Raræ Aves ſhould be remitted to the Epitaph-VVriter, or to ſome Poet, vvho may condeſcend to hitch him in a Diſtich, or to ſlide him into a Rhime vvith an Air of Careleſneſs and Neglect, vvithout giving any Offence to the Reader.

1749, Henry Fielding, “A Wonderful Long Chapter Concerning the Marvellous; Being Much the Longest of All Our Introductory Chapters”, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume III, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book VIII, page 150:

Few attorneys are well acquainted with the etiquette of good society; those among the fraternity are raræ aves, who venture on the esquire or afford sealing-wax; hence there is usually a characteristic vulgarity about "a lawyer's letter," which identifies it at once.

1835, F[rederick] W[illiam] N[aylor] Bailey, “Part I. The Spunging House.”, in Scenes and Stories by a Clergyman in Debt. […], volume I, London: A. H. Baily and Co., […], →OCLC, page 12:

One [Maori] man stated his surprise on seeing a boat land with seamen, who had black legs and white bodies; others with bright red bodies, and white legs speckled with white spots, according to the dresses they had on, which was supposed to form part of the body; but their fear was at its height on seeing these rara avises walk about the beech,^([sic – meaning beach?]) on which numbers of the natives ran up the hills, while others climbed the trees.

1838, J[oel] S[amuel] Polack, chapter IX, in New Zealand: Being a Narrative of Travels and Adventures during a Residence in that Country between the Years 1831 and 1837. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, pages 268–269:

Whether people grow fat by joking, or whether there is something in fat itself which predisposes to a joke, I have never been quite able to determine; but certain it is that a lean joker is a rara avis in terris [rare bird on earth].

[1849 March 17, Edgar Allan Poe, “Hop-Frog”, in The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe: […], volumes II (Poems and Miscellanies), New York, N.Y.: J. S. Redfield, […], published 1850, →OCLC, page 455:

[…] Nazareth was one of those raræ aves of her sex, a self-contained, self-companioning woman, finding her best sympathizer, her best confidante, her most satisfactory friend, in Nazareth Pitcher; for Nazareth Sampson was non-existent as yet, except in name.

1882, [Jane Goodwin Austin], “John”, in The Desmond Hundred (Round-Robin Series), Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, →OCLC, page 46:

We are besides, for various reasons, compelled to employ higher-class labour than we could when the business was less complex, before there were serial issues, colonial and continental libraries, when translations were raræ aves, and when a casual ten-pound note was the Ultima Thule of our ambitions from America, &c.

1892 December 3, W[illia]m Heinemann, “The Hardships of Publishing”, in The Athenæum: Journal of English and Foreign Literature, Science, the Fine Arts, Music and the Drama, number 3397, London: John C. Francis, →OCLC, page 780, column 1:

The secret is—Frank Cravens.^([sic – meaning Frank Craven]) He is that rarest of rarae aves—the author-actor.

1914 September 26, R. B., “Theaters”, in Samuel Travers Clover, editor, The Graphic, volume XLIV, number 17, Los Angeles, Calif.: Graphic Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 8, column 1:

"But I do read De Quincey," Ralph protested, "more than Belloc and Chesterton, anyhow." / "Indeed!" exclaimed Mrs. Cosham, with a gesture of surprise and relief mingled. "You are, then, a rara avis in your generation. I am delighted to meet any one who reads De Quincey."

1919 October 20, Virginia Woolf, chapter XII, in Night and Day, London: Duckworth and Company […], →OCLC, page 154:

RARAE AVES OF THE STREET / There were colorful characters which moved through the Nassau Street atmosphere of the past and which have become legendary; Ginnity, the stamp finder of forty years ago, for example.

1940, Alvin F[ay] Harlow, Paper Chase: The Amenities of Stamp Collecting, New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, →OCLC, page 116:

However that may be, the non-Catholic author who writes novels about Christ without betraying how the poison of modern Protestant theology has seeped down into literature is the rarest of rarae aves.

1944 September 2, Harold C[harles] Gardiner, “Christian Thought and the Past”, in In All Conscience: Reflections on Books and Culture, Garden City, N.Y.: Hanover House, Doubleday & Company, published 1959, →LCCN, →OCLC, part 1 (Books in Our Culture), page 70:

Again the tendency is very largely to use inside cylinders, but it is not quite so marked as in the case of tender engines; the 0-6-0 tank with outside cylinders is not quite the rara avis that the 0-6-0 tender has been.

1945 November and December, H. C. Casserley, “Random Reflections on British Locomotive Types—1”, in Railway Magazine, page 320:

As Muldoon himself recalls the encounter, his teacher, Jerry Hicks, introduced him to Heaney with the words, "This is the boy who'll be even better than you", which, as Muldoon says, "was inappropriate and very embarrassing". Hicks then added in a stage whisper: "Rara avis."

2001 May 12, Robert Potts, “The poet at play”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

‘Rara avis,’ she said. ‘That’s what you are Frankie. A rara avis.’ She had pushed him out into the night then, to Uncle George and the waiting car.

2008, Kate De Goldi, “Tuesday, June 6”, in The 10pm Question, Dunedin, New Zealand: Longacre Press, published 2009, →ISBN, page 251:

Alf was that rarest of rarae aves of the underclass. He knew what he wanted, and what he wanted was to be comfortable. He wanted to not have to work too hard for that comfort.

2017, Mercedes Lackey, chapter 2, in A Scandal in Battersea (Elemental Masters; 13; DAW Book Collectors; no. 1758), New York, N.Y.: DAW Books, →ISBN:

(figuratively) A rare or unique, and thus outstanding or unusual, person or thing; a rare bird.

feniks

бе́лая воро́на f (bélaja voróna, literally “white crow”)


booby

17th century. From Spanish bobo, from Latin balbus (“stammering”).

At which time, ſome Boobyes, weary of flight, made our Ship their pearch, an animall ſo ſimple as ſuffers any to take her without feare, as if a ſtupid ſenſe made her careleſſe of danger...

1638, Sir Thomas Herbert, Some years travels into divers parts of Asia and Afrique:

We found on St. Paul's only two kinds of birds—the booby and the noddy. The former is a species of gannet, and the latter a tern. Both are of a tame and stupid disposition, and are so unaccustomed to visitors, that I could have killed any number of them with my geological hammer.

1839, Robert FitzRoy, Phillip Parker King, Charles Darwin, chapter I, in Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty’s Ships Adventure and Beagle, between the Years 1826 and 1836, […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC:

Any of various large tropical seabirds from the genera Sula and Papasula in the gannet family Sulidae, traditionally considered to be stupid.

A booby may displace another booby or a bridged ball by roquet, ricochet, or concussion.

1863, Mayne Reid, Croquet, London: C.J. Skeet, page 33:

In the game of croquet, a ball that has not passed through the first wicket.


booby

en-adj

booby (comparative more booby, superlative most booby)

more booby (comparative)
most booby (superlative)

When we arrived at the houſe, I was in the utmoſt confuſion; for the booby ſervants ſtood gaping and grinning at my diſtreſs, and Sir Sampſson himſelf told me, with a laugh as horrible as Caliban's, that he would lend me one of his maids to carry me out airing every morning.

1755 January 23, The Connoisseur, 3rd edition, volume 2, number 52, published 1757, page 131:

(slang, obsolete) Stupid; unintelligent.


booby

booby (comparative boobier, superlative boobiest)

boobier (comparative)
boobiest (superlative)

If it's too tight, I don't want the fat coming out heeya?' She points to the danger spot, where upper arm brushes against glorious bosom, and the top of a strapless dress can cut an unsightly line. 'Am I very booby? Do I look very chesty?'

2001, Helen Garner, The Feel of Steel, Picador Australia, →ISBN, page 221:

We did a photoshoot the week before and she took the dress from the shoot and said: "I want to wear this for the awards next week. Her publicist was like, "Don't you think it's a bit 'booby' for a kids event?" But she wore it anyway!'

2011 March 31, Jo Berry, Katy Perry: California Gurl, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

Everyone has their paranoias. And we all chip in, swap handbags and jewellery, and offer lots of support when one or another is having doubts about their frock.
'Wow, you look amazing!'
'Aw, I think I look a bit booby.'
'I don't like my bra.'

2017 March 9, Kate Garraway, The Joy of Big Knickers: (or learning to love the rest of your life), Bonnier Publishing Ltd., →ISBN:

I put on boxer shorts and a strappy baby-doll dress that floated from my ribs comfortably. It was a bit booby. Leftover pre-period bloat, I guess.

2021 August 24, Mary-Lou Zeitoun, Jamilah at the End of the World, James Lorimer & Company, →ISBN, page 66:

(informal, of clothing or a person) Displaying breasts prominently.


poster

From post + -er, from post (“travel, dispatch”).

we whirled along with four posters at a gallop

1854, Charles Lever, The Dodd Family Abroad:


get someone's goat

en-verb

get someone's goat (third-person singular simple present gets someone's goat, present participle getting someone's goat, simple past got someone's goat, past participle (UK) got someone's goat or (US) gotten someone's goat)

gets someone's goat (present singular third-person)
getting someone's goat (participle present)
got someone's goat (past)
got someone's goat (UK participle past)
gotten someone's goat (US participle past)

/ˌɡɛt ˈsʌmwʌnz ˈɡəʊt/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-get someone's goat.wav

Uncertain; it has been suggested that the term may be derived from French prendre la chèvre (literally “to take the goat”), or refer to the stealing of a goat mascot from a military unit, etc.

der

Coordinate term: yank someone's chain

It really gets my goat when inconsiderate people drop litter in public.

If he had legged it on his own account, because what he heard me say got his goat, I could understand that.

1915, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, chapter XXIII, in Uneasy Money, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton and Company, published 17 March 1916, →OCLC, page 306:

"Unfortunately," said Soames, "there's no such thing as luck in properly regulated assurance, as we shall find, or I'm much mistaken. I shouldn't be surprised if an action lay against the Board for gross negligence!" That had got the Chairman's goat!—Got his goat? What expressions they used nowadays!

1924 October, John Galsworthy, “The Mark Falls”, in The White Monkey, London: William Heinemann, published November 1924, →OCLC, part II, page 123:

But there's one litte thing that gets my goat, / That certainly strikes a sour note. / It's that Southern Ship who has my place— / With her larger decks and her faster pace.

1941 May, “Milestone”, in T. Orchard Lisle, editor, The Log, volume 36, number 8, San Francisco, Calif.: Miller Freeman Publishers, →OCLC, page 34:

It sure did get their goat; they turned without saying a word and walked off toward the highway, red-necked, us laughing behind them. I forget sometimes what laughter can do.

1962 February 1, Ken Kesey, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Signet Books; 225), New York, N.Y.: New American Library, →OCLC; republished New York, N.Y.: Signet, New American Library, February 1963, →OCLC, page 95:

Sometimes people are quite simply intent on riling us; on getting our goat. [...] If you don't want them to get your goat, don't let them know where it is.

2002, Barry Winbolt, “Looking for New Ideas”, in Difficult People: A Guide to Handling Difficult Behaviour, Seaford, East Sussex: ISR Publishing, Institute for Social Relations, published 2005, →ISBN, section 2, pages 191–192:

As Sandra Strain had seen it, as quickly as Natty had gotten her goat, she had slaughtered it by being apologetic. This was not what the girl had anticipated, nor wanted to hear.

2005, Sandy Santistevan, chapter 7, in Song of the Cicada: A Novel, Lincoln, Neb.: iUniverse, →ISBN, page 79:

(informal, idiomatic) To annoy or infuriate someone.

courir sur le haricot

to annoy or infuriate someone — see also annoy, infuriate


tawny

en-noun

tawny (countable and uncountable, plural tawnies or tawnys)

From Middle English tauni, tawne (“brownish-orange colour; cloth of this colour; sweet beverage of this colour”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman tawné, and Old French tané, tanné, tanney (“tan colour; cloth of this colour”), from tané (verb): see further at etymology 1.
Sense 2.1 (“Eurasian bullfinch”) is due to the brown colour of the female.

kellanruskea

something of a light brown or brownish orange colour


doggy

en-adj

doggy (comparative doggier, superlative doggiest)

doggier (comparative)
doggiest (superlative)

From Middle English doggi, equivalent to dog + -y (adjectival suffix).


night owl

From night + owl, from the fact that the bird is active at night.

The night-owl,—a mug-shaped instrument, with an orifice in its side, through which a whistle is inserted,—when used, is partly filled with water, to give the tremulous owl-hoot sound.

1874 May, James Judson Lord, “Haydn’s Children’s Symphony [actually the Toy Symphony, possibly by Leopold Mozart or Edmund Angerer]”, in [Mary Mapes Dodge], editor, St. Nicholas, volume I, number 7, New York, N.Y.: Scribner & Co., →OCLC, page 429, column 2:

At the right was the piano, with a young lady seated, ready to play. Just before the curtain, and arranged in a semicircle, sat the juvenile orchestra,—Kitty with a tin trumpet; Jane with her night-owl filled with water and ready to pipe up; Julia with another bird, but having a different note; John with his drum, and Edward with his trumpet.

1889, Charles Barnard, chapter VI, in The Tone Masters: A Musical Series for Young People, Boston, Mass.: New England Conservatory of Music, →OCLC, book I (Mozart and Mendelssohn), pages 189–190:

(music) A musical instrument which imitates an owl's hoot, consisting of a receptacle partly filled with water and a mouthpiece that is blown into.