triangle

/ˈtɹaɪəŋɡəl/

/ˈtɹaɪˌæŋɡəl/

/ˈtɹaɪˌæŋɡəl/

PIE word
 *tréyes
From Middle English triangle, from Old French triangle, from Latin triangulum, noun use of adjective triangulus (“three-cornered, having three angles”), from trēs (“three”) + angulus (“corner, angle”), equivalent to tri- + angle.

After turning on the triangle at Jeumont, we set off light engine back to Aulnoye.

1961 March, ""Balmore"", “Driving and firing modern French steam locomotives”, in Trains Illustrated, page 147:

(rail transport) A triangular formation of railway tracks, with a curve on at least one side.


zebra

1600; borrowed from Italian zebra, from Portuguese zebra, zebro (“zebra”), from Old Galician-Portuguese enzebro, ezebra, azebra (“wild ass”), from earlier cebrario (882), ezebrario (897), from Vulgar Latin *eciferus, from Latin equiferus (“wild horse”) (Pliny), from equus (“horse”) + ferus (“wild”).
While the word was traditionally pronounced with a long vowel in the first syllable in standard English, during the twentieth century a vowel shift occurred in regions of England, with the shortening of the first vowel. This pronunciation is now used throughout the UK and most Commonwealth nations. The long-vowel pronunciation remains standard in Canadian and American English and is used in the UK only by some older, conservative RP speakers.
(unlikely diagnosis): Originates in the advice often given to medical students, "when you hear hoofbeats, think of horses, not zebras".
(referee): In reference to the black and white striped shirts they wear.

(informal) A zebra cichlid (Amatitlania nigrofasciata).


rose

en-noun

rose (countable and uncountable, plural roses)

→ Marshallese: rooj

→ Tokelauan: loha

From Middle English rose, roose, from Old English rōse, but with its vowel influenced by Old French rose, both from Latin rosa.
cognates and more remote and uncertain etymology
The Latin is of uncertain origin, but likely via Oscan from Ancient Greek ῥόδον (rhódon, “rose”) (Aeolic ϝρόδον (wródon)), from Old Persian *vr̥dah (“flower”) (compare Avestan 𐬬𐬀𐬭𐬆𐬜𐬀- (var^əδa-), Sogdian ward, Parthian wâr, late Middle Persian [Term?] (gwl /gul/), Persian گل (gol, “rose, flower”), and Middle Iranian borrowings including Old Armenian վարդ (vard, “rose”), Aramaic וַרְדָּא (wardā) / ܘܪܕܐ (wardā), Arabic وَرْدَة (warda), Hebrew וֶרֶד (wéreḏ)), from Proto-Indo-European *wr̥dʰos (“sweetbriar”) (compare Old English word (“thornbush”), Latin rubus (“bramble”), Albanian hurdhe (“ivy”)). Possibly ultimately a derivation from a verb for "to grow" only attested in Indo-Iranian (*Hwardʰ-, compare Sanskrit वर्धति (vardhati), with relatives in Avestan).


festoon

(astronomy) A cloud on Jupiter that hangs out of its home belt or zone into an adjacent area forming a curved finger-like image or a complete loop back to its home belt or zone.


jay

From Middle English jay, from Old French jai ("jay"; Modern French geai), either from Late Latin gaius (“jay”), or from Old French gai (“gay, merry”), so named due to its plumage, from Old Frankish *gāhi (“quick, impetuous”), from Proto-Germanic *ganhuz, *ganhwaz (“sudden”), cognate with Dutch gaai (“jay”). More at gay.

gloss

"jay"; Modern French <i class="Latn mention" lang="fr">geai</i>

ятгашаазгай (jatgašaazgaj, literally “zither magpie”)

They are the commonality of birddom, who furnish forth the mobs which bewilder the drunken-flighted jay when he jerks, shrieking in a series of blue hyphen-flashes through the air […]

1878, Philip Stewart Robinson, In My Indian Garden:

Any of various other birds of similar appearance and behaviour.

The Indian roller, Coracias benghalensis.


peacock

→ Hawaiian: pīkake
→ English: pikake

→ Maori: pīkake

From Middle English pecok, pekok, pocok, pacok, equivalent to pea (“peafowl; peacock”) + cock. Compare Old Norse páfugl (“peacock”, literally “pea-fowl”), and English peahen, peachick, etc.

cog

The ſpring diſplaying her elegant taſte, the proud walk of the gold-feathered pheaſant, the light tread of the ſmall-hoofed hind, and the dancing of the ſtar-trained peacock, infuſed joy into the ſoul of the ſpectator of the aſtoniſhing works of the Creator.

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 v:

A male peafowl, especially Pavo cristatus, notable for its brilliant iridescently ocellated tail.

A peafowl (of the genus Pavo or Afropavo), either male or female.

аԥса́ркәты

pheasant of one of the genera Pavo and Afropavo

A pompous or vainglorious person [from the 14th c.].

(entomology) Any of various Asian species of papilionid butterflies of the genus Papilio.


peacock

en-verb

peacock (third-person singular simple present peacocks, present participle peacocking, simple past and past participle peacocked)

peacocks (present singular third-person)
peacocking (participle present)
peacocked (participle past)
peacocked (past)

A routine border-check in upstate New York had turned into a back-room interrogation, and I was worried, because the three friends I was traveling with didn’t respond to authority well. I could almost hear the wry grins cracking their faces as the officers peacocked. “Is U.S. Customs a joke to you?” one officer asked. My friend Alex said, “No law against smiling, sir.”

2014 May 30, Will Butler, “The Mark of Cane”, in The New York Times Magazine:

(intransitive) To strut about proudly or haughtily.

(intransitive) To engage in peacocking, ostentatious dress or behaviour to impress women.


apollo

(entomology) Any of several papilionid butterflies of the genus Parnassius, especially Parnassius apollo of Eurasia (also known as the mountain apollo).


mime

en-noun

mime (countable and uncountable, plural mimes)

Possibly from Middle English *mime, from Old English mīma (“a buffoon, jester, mime”), from Latin mimus, from Ancient Greek μῖμος (mîmos, “imitator, actor”), but more likely re-borrowed in modern times from French mime (“mimic actor”), from the same source.

der

Any of various papilionid butterflies of the genus Chilasa or Papilio, that mimic other species in appearance.


windmill

From Middle English wyndmylne, wyndmylle, equivalent to wind + mill. Cognate with Scots wyndmyln, wyndmyl, Saterland Frisian Wíendmäälne, West Frisian wynmûne, Dutch windmolen, Afrikaans windmeul, Dutch Low Saxon windmölle (Achterhooks), wiendmeule (Drents, Veluws), German Low German Windmöhl, German Windmühle, Danish vindmølle, Norwegian Bokmål vindmølle, Norwegian Nynorsk vindmølle, vindmylne, Swedish vindmölla, Icelandic vindmylla.
(imaginary enemy): A reference to Don Quixote tilting at windmills.


swallowtail

Swallowtail (flag)
Swallowtail butterfly
Tailcoat#Dress_coat

Claudette visit me […] and the biggest, most beautiful black-and-yellow Jamaican swallowtail butterfly follow behind she, like it give us it little blessing.

2020, Paul Mendez, Rainbow Milk, Dialogue Books (2021), page 8:

Any of various butterflies of the family Papilionidae, many of which have a long extension to each hindwing.


Apollo

From Latin Apollō, from Ancient Greek Ἀπόλλων (Apóllōn).

Apollo 11 landed people on the moon for the first time.

(NASA, space science) A United States space program, and the vehicles it created, used for human travel to the moon.


mormon

Any of various dark-coloured Asian species of papilionid butterflies of the genus Papilio.


Helen

en-proper noun

Helen (countable and uncountable, plural Helens)

→ Danish: Helen

→ Estonian: Helen

→ Hawaiian: Helena

→ Norwegian: Helen

→ Swedish: Helen

From French Hélène, from Latin Helena, from Ancient Greek Ἑλένη (Helénē). Doublet of Elaine.

Evelyn De Morgan
Helen of Troy (painting)

census-designated place
census-designated place

A census-designated place in Raleigh County, West Virginia.


bluebottle

bluebottles (plural)
blue-bottle (alternative)

From blue + bottle, after the resemblance to shiny colored-glass bottles. In sense 3 (“cornflower”), via Middle English blewbothel. Sense 6 (“police officer”) is in reference to the colour of the uniform.

Batemans Bay, New South Wales
bluebottle

A blue ant, Diamma bicolor, a parasitic wasp native to Australia.


spangle

The noun is derived from Middle English spangel (“small piece of ornamental metal, spangle; small ornament”) [and other forms], from spang (“small piece of ornamental metal, spangle; small ornament; type of bowl or cup”) + -el (diminutive suffix). Spang is derived from Middle Dutch spange, spaenge (“buckle, clasp; brooch; spangle”) (modern Dutch spang (“clasp; hook; metal hairband; metal pin”)), from Middle Low German spangel (“small chain or clasp”), from Proto-Germanic *spangō (“brooch; clasp”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *(s)penh₁- (“to twist; to weave”). The English word is analysable as spang + -le (diminutive suffix).
The verb is derived from the noun.

nb...

spancle, spangele, spangell, spangelle, spangyll

der

Thus in a Starry night fond children cry / For the rich ſpangles that adorn the Sky; / Which though they ſhine for ever fixed there, / With light and influence relieve us here.

1645, Edmond Waller [i.e., Edmund Waller], “Of the Queen”, in Poems, &c. Written upon Several Occasions, and to Several Persons: […], 6th edition, London: […] H[enry] Herringman, and sold by Jacob Tonson, […], published 1694, →OCLC, page 118, lines 35–38:

See round the Poles where keener ſpangles ſhine, / Where ſpices ſmoke beneath the burning Line, / (Earths wide extreams) her ſable flag diſplay'd; / And all the nations cover'd in her ſhade!

1728, [Alexander Pope], “Book the Third”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. […], Dublin, London: […] A. Dodd, →OCLC, page 39, lines 61–64:

[N]ight closed with a blue and cloudless sky, in which the thousand spangles that deck the firmament received double brilliancy from some slight touch of frost, although the paler planet, their mistress, was but in her first quarter.

1825 June 22, [Walter Scott], chapter VIII, in Tales of the Crusaders. […], volume I (The Betrothed), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 148:

Any small sparkling object.
(figuratively) A star.


common raven

A dark-colored South Asian swallowtail butterfly, Papilio castor


batwing

batwings (plural)
bat wing (alternative)
bat-wing (alternative)
bat's wing (alternative)

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

The cantina was a flatroofed adobe, painfully white in the unrelenting sun, with a brush roof and splintery batwings. The doors swung back and forth as a man stepped before them and stood beneath the brush arbor, staring at Navarro,[…]

2005 April 5, Ralph Compton, Peter Brandvold, Ralph Compton Navarro, Penguin, →ISBN:

He made it to the saloon undetected and slipped under the batwing and over to the table where he had left his saddlebags. They weren't there. Fargo ran his hands over the top of the table to be sure, and swore.

2010 March 2, Jon Sharpe, The Trailsman #341: Sierra Six-Guns, Penguin, →ISBN:

A tall figure stepped up to the batwing doors of the saloon as Tommy and Matt passed.

2012, James E. Ferrell, Cross-Pull, page 385:

Feigning indifference, Stacey strolled quickly toward the batwings. Looking over the doors he saw Snow and his companions walking in the direction of the hotel, but he couldn't be sure that was where they were actually headed.

2016 July 31, James Clay, Hard Stone, Robert Hale Ltd, →ISBN:

Reaching the saloon, John pulled back the right batwing and nodded for Utah Jimmy and Memphis Mayford to enter. After they went inside, John led them to the receiving line. The milling crowd moved aside quickly,[…]

2021 November 23, Conn Hamlett, John Lee Johnson in the Valley of the Sun: Along Came Jones, AuthorHouse, →ISBN:

One of a pair of swinging doors which typically do not lock nor cover the full vertical range of the doorway (leaving a large gap at the top and bottom), common especially in saloons.


swordtail

But ongoing efforts to sequence genes from other fishes, including salmon and swordtail, will also help to test the theory, Postlethwait says.

1998 August 21, Gretchen Vogel, “EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY:Doubled Genes May Explain Fish Diversity”, in Science, volume 281, number 5380, →DOI, pages 1119–1121:

One of many species of freshwater fish, in genus Xiphophorus, others of which are called platyfish.


birdwing

Any of various large papilionid butterflies of the genera Troides and Ornithoptera.


papilionid

Any butterfly of the family Papilionidae


graphium

From Latin graphium (“stylus”). Doublet of graft.


parnassian

(entomology) Of, relating to, or designating papilionid butterflies of the genus Parnassius or the subfamily Parnassiinae, consisting of the apollo butterflies.


Parnassian

en-adj

Parnassian (comparative more Parnassian, superlative most Parnassian)

more Parnassian (comparative)
most Parnassian (superlative)

From Parnassus, from Latin Parnassus, from Ancient Greek Παρνασσός (Parnassós).

[…] at last, — this is the point to be marked, - they can see things in this Parnassian way and describe them in this Parnassian tongue, without further effort of inspiration.

1864, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Poems and prose, Penguin Books, published 1954, page 157:

But in Parnassian pieces you feel that if you were the poet you could have gone on as he has done, you see yourself doing it, only with the difference that if you actually try you find you cannot write his Parnassian.

1864, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Poems and prose, Penguin Books, published 1954, page 158:

'Behold', 'dream a dream', 'mingle': these here have something of the plangent tremulousness which comes when Tennyson is writing 'Parnassian' verse.

1989, Christopher Bruce Ricks, Tennyson, →ISBN, page 212:

One might be tempted to read this conjoining of exoticism and sensuality as a Parnassian exercise, until one reads the rest of the poem: […]

c. 2002, Émile J. Talbot, Reading Nelligan, McGill-Queen's University Press, →ISBN, page 166:

(poetry, from Gerard Manley Hopkins' writings) Describing a style of poetry or language which can only be created by poets, but not in the language of inspiration.


Richmond birdwing

en-noun

Richmond birdwing (plural Richmond birdwings)

Ornithoptera priamus richmondia, a butterfly endemic to Australia.


pipevine swallowtail

pipevine swallowtail (plural pipevine swallowtails)

The caterpillars feed on Aristolochia species; see pipevine.

Battus philenor, a swallowtail butterfly found in North America and Central America, black with iridescent blue hind wings.


Troilus butterfly

Troilus butterfly (plural Troilus butterflies)

A large American butterfly (Papilio troilus). It is black, with yellow marginal spots on the front wings, and blue on the rear.


prickly ash

Any of a number of trees and shrubs in the genus Zanthoxylum containing Sichuan pepper and the American Midwest invasive species.


turnus

The Turnus is perhaps the most beautiful of our butterflies […]

1917, Marie Conway Oemler, Slippy McGee: Sometimes Known as the Butterfly Man:

Papilio glaucus, the eastern tiger swallowtail, a butterfly of eastern North America.


tiger swallowtail

tiger swallowtail (plural tiger swallowtails)

Any of a group of North American butterfly species in the genus Papilio that typically have a distinctive pattern of black stripes on yellow wings reminiscent of tiger fur.


pale swallowtail

pale swallowtail (plural pale swallowtails)

A species of tiger swallowtail native to western North American, Papilio eurymedon, with the wings a much paler yellow (sometimes white).


flying handkerchief

flying handkerchief (plural flying handkerchiefs)

An African swallowtail butterfly, Papilio dardanus, with white wings reminiscent of a handkerchief.


clubtail

Any of various papilionid butterflies of the genus Losaria, having a club-like extension to each hindwing.


dragontail

Either of two papilionid butterflies of the genus Lamproptera, having long projections on their hindwings.


lime butterfly

lime butterfly (plural lime butterflies)

A butterfly of species Papilio demoleus, family Papilionidae, of Australia and Asia, the caterpillar of which feeds on citrus trees.


red Helen

A butterfly, Papilio helenus, family Papilionidae, of Asia.


common rose

A large red-bodied butterfly, Pachliopta aristolochiae, family Papilionidae, of Asia.


cattleheart

Any of various papilionid butterflies of the genus Parides, of the Neotropics.


Rajah Brooke's birdwing

Rajah Brooke's birdwing (plural Rajah Brooke's birdwings)

Named by the naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace in 1855, after James Brooke, the Rajah of Sarawak.

Trogonoptera brookiana, a birdwing butterfly of Asian rainforests.


Phoebus Apollo

Parnassius phoebus, a species of swallowtail butterfly.


Borneo birdwing

Borneo birdwing (plural Borneo birdwings)

It is a birdwing butterfly only found in Borneo.

Troides andromache, a species of Bornean birdwing butterfly.


five-bar swordtail

five-bar swordtail (plural five-bar swordtails)

An Asian papilionid butterfly, of species Graphium antiphates, having five short black bands on the forewing.


zebra swallowtail

zebra swallowtail (plural zebra swallowtails)

The American butterfly Eurytides marcellus.


orange puppy

Synonym of orange dog (“type of caterpillar”).


orange dog

The caterpillar of the giant swallowtail butterfly, which feeds on the leaves of citrus.


giant swallowtail

giant swallowtail (plural giant swallowtails)

Papilio cresphontes, the largest butterfly in North America.


parsnip swallowtail

parsnip swallowtail (plural parsnip swallowtails)


black swallowtail

black swallowtail (plural black swallowtails)

A species of butterfly, Papilio polyxenes.


philenor

pipevine swallowtail
pipevine swallowtail#English