peacock
See also: Peacock
English
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Etymology
editEtymology tree
From Middle English pecok, pekok, pocok, pacok, first component from Old English pēa, pāwa (“peacock, peafowl”), ultimately from Latin pāvō; equivalent to pea + cock. Compare Old Norse páfugl (“peacock”, literally “peafowl”), and English peahen, peachick, etc.
Pronunciation
edit- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈpikɑk/
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈpiːkɒk/
Audio (US): (file)
Noun
editpeacock (usually countable, plural peacocks)
- A male peafowl, especially Pavo cristatus, notable for its brilliant iridescently ocellated tail.
- Coordinate term: turkeycock
- 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:
- 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.
- A peafowl (of the genus Pavo or Afropavo), either male or female.
- (uncountable) The meat of this bird.
- 1979 April 23, Craig Claiborne, “De Gustibus”, in The New York Times[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:
- When a reader recently inquired if people really eat peacock, I stated that I’d never tasted the bird, roasted or otherwise, and as far as I knew, it is rarely cooked anywhere in the world.
- 1990 December 20, Charles Perry, “The Birds: Fowl Play…”, in Los Angeles Times[2], Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles Times Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 5 April 2026:
- Nor do many people today long to eat peacock, which was both a privilege and an ordeal reserved for royalty.
- 2017 September 27, Sam Anderson, “New Sentences: From ‘The New Rules of Coffee’”, in The New York Times Magazine[3], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 September 2018:
- Nero, infamous emperor of Rome, built a rotating dining room in which guests could eat peacock while flower petals fluttered down from special panels in the ivory ceiling.
- A pompous or vainglorious person [from the 14th c.].
- Synonym: turkeycock
- (entomology) Any of various Asian species of papilionid butterflies of the genus Papilio.
- 1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 199:
- The large and handsome spectre-butterfly, Hestia durvillei; the pale-winged peacock butterfly, Drusilla catops; and the most brilliant and wonderful of the clear-winged moths, Cocytia durvillei, were especially interesting, as well, as several little "blues," equalling in brilliancy and beauty anything the butterfly world can produce.
Synonyms
edit- peafowl (ornithology)
Hyponyms
editDerived terms
edit- East Atlantic peacock wrasse
- European peacock
- giant peacock moth
- Indian peacock
- Java peacock
- Lower Peacock
- meacock
- mountain peacock-pheasant
- Peacock Alley
- peacock bass
- peacock blue
- peacock butterfly
- peacock chair
- peacock copper
- Peacock Creek
- peacockery
- peacock fish
- peacock flounder
- peacock flower
- peacock fly
- peacocking
- peacockish
- peacockism
- peacock jumping spider
- peacocklike
- peacock mantis shrimp
- peacock mite
- peacock moth
- peacock ore
- peacock pansy
- peacock parachute spider
- peacock-pheasant
- peacock pheasant
- peacock spider
- peacockwise
- peacock worm
- peacocky
- proud as a peacock
- Rothschild's peacock-pheasant
- sea peacock
Descendants
editTranslations
editpheasant of one of the genera Pavo and Afropavo
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Verb
editpeacock (third-person singular simple present peacocks, present participle peacocking, simple past and past participle peacocked)
- (intransitive) To strut about proudly or haughtily.
- 2014 May 30, Will Butler, “The Mark of Cane”, in The New York Times Magazine[4]:
- 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.”
- (intransitive) To engage in peacocking, ostentatious dress or behaviour to impress women.
Translations
editto strut about proudly or haughtily
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to engage in peacocking
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See also
editCategories:
- English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Latin
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms derived from Ancient Greek
- English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms derived from a Pre-Greek substrate
- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English compound terms
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- en:Entomology
- English verbs
- English intransitive verbs
- English endocentric compounds
- en:Fowls
- en:Male animals
- en:Swallowtails