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POPINJAY (n. pl. -S)
Definition(s):
- (n.) a vain, conceited, or overly talkative person; “a strutting supercilious person” (MW)
- (n.) a parrot
- (n.) a wooden parrot or other object, used as a target for archery or firearms
- (n.) in heraldry, a representation of a parrot
Useful information for game players:
- Front hooks: (none)
- Back hooks: -S
- Anagrams: (none)
- Longer extensions: (none)
- Wraparounds: (none)
- Other Spellings: (none)
- Related Forms: (none)
Epilogue:
This word has strutted its way through the ages, with a variety of spellings and meanings. It started out as the Arabic babgha, an imitative word for the parrot. It then passed through several languages and many spellings in medieval English before settling on the modern-day rendering of POPINJAY. The OED notes specifically that “the word was probably borrowed from Arabic at the time of the Crusades; its various forms in different languages show remodelling of the ending as a result of folk etymology...” In English, the folk etymologies associated it either with the bird JAY or the adjective GAY, neither of which it is actually related to.
In any case, before long the word’s meaning changed from a literal parrot, to a representation of a parrot, to a person who behaves in a brash or strutting manner, the last being in use from at least the 1500s. In yesterday’s COXCOMB entry we saw other examples of the centuries-old relationship between boastful words and birds — doubtless an unfair characterization, but such is the enduring influence of old associations between animals and human personality traits or behaviors.
Theme:
Words about bragging, vanity, and boastfulness
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