Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A vain, talkative person.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A parrot.
- n. A woodpecker; especially, the green wood-pecker of Europe, Gecinus viridis.
- n. The figure of a parrot or other bird used as a mark for archery or firearms. For this purpose, it was usually hung to the top of a pole so as to swing in the wind.
- n. In heraldry, a parrot used as a bearing: always, unless otherwise mentioned in the blazon, represented green, with red legs and beak.
- n. A coxcomb; a fop.
Wiktionary
- n. A strutting supercilious person; a coxcomb, dandy, fop.
- n. A parrot or green woodpecker.
- n. A wooden parrot, or similar object, stuck on a pole as a target to be shot at.
- n. A heraldic (or other) representation of a parrot.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The green woodpecker.
- n. A parrot.
- n. A target in the form of a parrot.
- n. A trifling, chattering, fop or coxcomb.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an archaic term for a parrot
- n. a vain and talkative person (chatters like a parrot)
Etymologies
- Middle English, parrot, from Old French papegai, from Spanish papagayo or Old Provençal papagai, both from Arabic babġā', babaġā', from Persian babbaghā.
Examples
“_Item_, a pair of hose of popinjay green (they be well called popinjay) of thirty shillings.”
“Hotspur's picture of this "popinjay" with pouncet-box in hand, and”
“Might Hooper and Seidler have considered making Logue do the "popinjay" speech by”
“Leftists accused him of "betrayal," it continued, and quoted one who had described him as a "drink-soaked former Trotskyist popinjay".”
The Guardian: Christopher Hitchens: He died too young, with too much left to say | Nick Cohen
“A serious writer may be a hawk or a buzzard or even a popinjay, but a solemn writer is always a bloody owl.”
“Defending the absurd notion that the windbaggery of Mr. Galloway is somehow a threat to our national security, a spokesperson for the virginal Jason Kenney, Alykhan Velshi, referred to Gorgeous George as "someone who has provided financial support to Hamas, a banned terrorist organization in Canada, and someone who is, in a sense, a popinjay for those Taliban fighters who are trying to kill Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan.”
“In 2005, George Galloway, UK Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, and ardent "pro-life" campaigner, famously referred to his arch-nemesis, Christopher Hitchens, as a "drink-soaked former Trotskyist popinjay.”
“Words come to mind that I can't print in their entirety, that the tribunal is full of petty popinjay chickens**ts.”
“That said, I cannot imagine she got the run around from popinjay Hitchens.”
“I cannot imagine she got the run around from popinjay Hitchens”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘popinjay’.
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Of Arabic Origin
Arabic loanwords in English are words acquired directly from Arabic or else indirectly by passing from Arabic into other languages and then into English. Most entered one or more of the Romance lan...
admiral, adobe, albatross, alchemy, alcohol, alcove, alembic, alfalfa, algebra, algorism, algorithm, alidade and 181 more...
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Nincompoopery
Words that clatter and tumble
nincompoop, pettyfoggery, gaberlunzie, cattywampus, weisenheimer, katzenjammer, hecklephone, loblolly, carriwitchet, flibbertyjibbet, hornswoggle, thimblerigger and 159 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( etymology )
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 837 more...
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You animal!
Names of animals that are also used to describe kinds of people. Nouns only, preferably single word.
For a related list, see sionnach's beastly verbs.rabbit, shark, hog, pussycat, bear, bull, skunk, hawk, wildcat, buck, slug, heifer and 112 more...
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for school!
squally, monetization, honorificabilitud..., hornswoggle, collywobbles, slangwhanger, filibuster, cliona, beknow, gallimaufry, sylvan, aide-de-camp and 31 more...
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color me bad
lapis, azure, beryl, cerulean, amaranthine, iris, helio, eucalyptus, evergreen, popinjay
garyth123 or fop Dec 4, 2008
reesetee Also a nickname for the Green Woodpecker. See also: yaffle. Dec 6, 2007
arby NOUN: A vain, talkative person.
ETYMOLOGY: Middle English, parrot, from Old French papegai, from Spanish papagayo or Old Provençal papagai, both from Arabic bab’, baba’, from Persian babbagh. Jul 17, 2007