| 释义 |
▪ I. parrot, n.|ˈpærət|
Also 6–7 parot, parat, 6–8 parrat, -et, (6 parrote, -otte, parott(e, parate).
[Known first c 1525; of uncertain origin, there being no cognate form of the name in other langs.; conjectured to be = F. Perrot ‘a mans proper name, being a diminutive or derivative of Pierre’ Peter (Cotgr.): cf. Pierrot, diminutive of Pierre, in mod.Fr. a name of the house-sparrow.
The chief difficulty in this is that the sense ‘parrot’ is not recorded for F. Perrot (although Littré has pérot as a modern Fr. familiar name given to the parrot), while Perrot does not appear as a man's name in 16th c. Eng., so that points of contact are wanting. Cf. however the suggested origin of Sp. perico, periquito, under parakeet.]
1. a. A bird of the order Psittaci, or family Psittacidæ, and spec. of the genus Psittacus; these are scansorial and zygodactyl, and have a short hooked bill and naked cere; many of the species have very beautiful plumage, and some of the fleshy-tongued ones can be taught to repeat words and sentences with great perfection; hence, much valued as cage-birds, the species most commonly kept being the Grey Parrot (Psittacus erythacus) of West Africa.
The order includes many genera and species chiefly inhabiting tropical and semi-tropical regions; a few are found in the temperate zones in N. America, Australia, and New Zealand. As differentiated from parakeet, ‘parrot’ is applied to the moderate-sized and larger species of the order. Various families, genera, and species have distinct names, as cockatoo, kea, lory, macaw, etc.
c1525Skelton Sp. Parrot 1 My name is Parrot, a byrd of paradyse. Ibid. 9 Parot must haue an almon or a date. Ibid. 15 Speke, Parrot, I pray you, full curtesly they say; Parrot is a goodly byrd, a prety popagey. 1564–78W. Bullein Dial. agst. Pest. (1888) 61 Our Parate will saie, Parate is a minion, and beware the Catte, and she will call me Roger as plaine as your Maistership. 1581Rich Farew. Milit. Prof. H iij b, Haue you founde your tongue now pretie peate, then wee must haue an Almon for Parrat. 1600J. Pory tr. Leo's Africa Introd. 52 Heere be likewise gray parots. 1601Holland Pliny I. 146 The Island Gagandus: where they began first to haue a sight of the birds called Parats. 1617Moryson Itin. iii. 2 Children like Parrats, soone learne forraigne languages, and sooner forget the same. 1656Earl of Monmouth tr. Boccalini's Advts. fr. Parnass. i. x. (1674) 13 Seeing a beautiful Indian Parret..[he] delighted to hear her speak. 1727Pope Th. Var. Subj. Swift's Wks. 1755 II. i. 230 A very little wit is valued in a woman, as we are pleased with a few words spoken plain by a parrot. 1781Cowper Convers. 7 Words learned by rote a parrot may rehearse. 1884–5Stand. Nat. Hist. (1888) IV. 363 The gray parrots, forming the family Psittacidæ, are few in number and are confined to Africa and Madagascar.
b. A figure of the bird; esp. one used as a mark for shooting at; a popinjay.
1578T. N. tr. Conq. W. India 198 They will make a Parret or Popin Jay of mettall, that his tongue shall shake, and his heade move, and his wings flutter. 1662J. Davies tr. Olearius' Voy. Ambass. 262 You passe through a place appointed for tilting..and in the midst, a high Pole for shooting at the wooden Parrat.
2. Applied contemptuously to a person; esp. in reference to an unintelligent mechanical repetition of speech, or imitation of the action of others.
1581J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. ii. 107 Speake out Parrotte, in what place doth Luther subuerte the dueties of vertue? Where doth hee blotte out honesty and godly carefulnesse of good men? 1656W. D. tr. Comenius' Gate Lat. Unl. §595. 181 To make a parrot of a man, a rehearser of other men's sayings. c1802M. Edgeworth Ennui ix, The mere puppets and parrots of fashion. 1837Emerson Addr., Amer. Schol. Wks. (Bohn) II. 175 He tends to become a mere thinker, or, still worse, the parrot of other men's thinking.
3. sea-parrot.
a. The coulterneb or puffin, so called on account of the peculiar shape of its bill.
1694Acc. Sev. late Voy. ii. 88 Amongst all web-footed Birds..this hath a peculiar Bill; and because it seem'd to those that gave him this Name to be like that of a Parret, therefore they called him also a Parret. 1772–84Cook's Voy. (1790) VI. 2126 We saw numbers of sea parrots, and small ice-birds. 1865Gosse Land & Sea (1874) 30 These are known by the fishermen as sea-parrots or coulternebs; but are more generally designated in books as puffins.
b. Some kind of fish: see parrot-fish.
1706Phillips, Sea-Parret, a Fish that has very sparkling and beautiful Eyes, the Balls of which are as clear as Crystal [etc.]. 1883Fisheries Exhib. Catal. (ed. 4) 105 Sea Wolf..Sea Parrot..Sea Sow, Cock Peddle..Sea Mouse.
4. attrib. and Comb., as parrot cage, parrot family, parrot form, parrot-pie, parrot-shooting, parrot species, parrot story, parrot teacher, etc.; of the nature of or resembling that of a parrot, esp. with reference to the mechanical repetition of words or phrases in the manner of the bird, as parrot-cry, parrot-echo, parrot-faculty, parrot-fury, parrot-lawyer, parrot-learning, parrot-phrase, parrot-player, parrot-prate, parrot-prating, parrot teaching, parrot-voice, parrot way, parrot-work, etc.; parrot-billed, parrot-bright, parrot-learnt, parrot-nosed, parrot-plumed, parrot-sharp adjs.; parrot-fashion, parrot-like adjs. and advs., parrot-wise adv.; parrot-beak = next (a); parrot-bill, (a) a New Zealand plant, Clianthus, Kaka-bill or Glory pea (Morris Austral Eng.); (b) a war-hammer with a point like a beak (Cent. Dict.); (c) applied attrib. and absol. to a type of cutting-tool the blades of which resemble a beak; parrot-bullfinch, an Indian bird of the genus Paradoxornis; parrot-crossbill, a species of crossbill, Loxia pytiopsittacus, having a larger bill than the common species; parrot disease, fever = psittacosis; parrot-finch, (a) = parrot-crossbill; (b) one of the Ploceidæ or Weaver-birds, Erythrura psittacea, from New Caledonia (List Anim. Zool. Gard. (1896) 252); parrot-green, a yellowish green like the colouring of some parrots; parrot mouth, a malformation of a horse's mouth, in which the upper incisors project beyond the lower, so as to prevent grazing; parrot-perch = parrot-fish b (Morris Austral Eng.); parrot's bill, † (a) a form of surgeon's pincers; (b) = parrot-bill (a); parrot's corn: see quot.; parrot snake (see quot. 1931); parrots' plague, rinderpest, a contagious disease to which parrots are subject; parrot-toed a., intoed, pigeon-toed; parrot tongue, a tongue like that of a parrot; spec. a dry shrivelled condition of the human tongue in typhus, etc.; parrot tulip, a variety of tulip with fringed and ruffled petals, often of variegated colours; parrot-weed, the Tree Celandine, Bocconia frutescens, a tropical American plant; parrot-wrasse = parrot-fish a. Also parrot-coal, -fish.
1971Power Farming Mar. 46/4 Stem cutting{ddd}*parrot bill shears may be used. 1972Country Life 23 Mar. 690/3 After this major excitement a willow lapses into hum-drummery and can be lopped with the parrot-bill.
1838Encycl. Brit. XVI. 581/2 The *parrot-billed species.
1920E. Sitwell Wooden Pegasus 24 From her fan, sliding slow, *Parrot-bright fire's feathers. 1937― I live under Black Sun 89 Giving a little girl a forbidden parrot-bright apple.
1825P. J. Selby Illustr. Brit. Ornith. I. 254 *Parrot-Crossbill. 1843Yarrell Hist. Brit. Birds II. 35 Specimens of the Parrot Crossbill are frequently brought from Germany..by dealers in birds' skins. 1894R. B. Sharpe Handbk. Birds Gt. Brit. (1896) 58 The so-called ‘Parrot’ Crossbill..is an inhabitant chiefly of Northern Europe, whence it ranges occasionally into the British Islands.
1837J. S. Mill in Westm. Rev. XXVIII. 3 There would be an end to the *parrot cry of ‘Do not endanger the Ministry’. 1898Daily News 2 June 7/6 An old parrot-cry which had been exploded long ago. 1956[see eyebrow 1 c]. 1963Times 20 Feb. 4/7 Such attacks are only worth noticing because they have tended to become a parrot cry. 1977Socialist Press 2 Mar. 7/5 ‘If you have a case, why don't you go to an industrial tribunal’, has become the favourite parrot cry of every barrack room lawyer crossing the picket line.
1908Spratt's Parrot Culture 29 Should a room have become infected with the *parrot disease..it will be needful to have it fumigated with sulphur. 1930Daily Express 6 Feb. 11/5 They [sc. alarming facts] concerned that dread illness, psittacosis, or parrot disease, of which a number of cases have occurred lately in London and Birmingham. 1955Times 8 June 6/4 A case of psittacosis (parrot disease) has occurred in the aircraft-carrier Centaur, which berthed here to-day on her return from the Mediterranean.
1884J. Tait Mind in Matter (1892) 238 False miracles or *parrot-echoes of real ones.
1901Daily News 5 Feb. 6/3 A *parrot-faculty for picking up languages.
1951Mind LX. 346 People just know it by heart and recite it *parrot-fashion. 1956D. Abercrombie Probl. & Princ. 25 Parrot-fashion teaching is apt to result from regarding reasoned explanation as ‘unnatural’. 1977‘F. Clifford’ Ten Minutes on June Morning 111 Reassurances..were passed on, parrot-fashion, without knowledge or understanding.
1955Sci. News Let. 3 Sept. 148/2 Viral hepatitis, better known to the layman as jaundice; psittacosis or *parrot fever; rabies; smallpox; yellow fever; the common cold,..are other of the virus diseases. 1957O. Breland Animal Friends & Foes ii. 63 This malady has also been called parrot fever, because the first known human cases were traced to sick parrots. 1973‘D. Shannon’ No Holiday for Crime (1974) i. 9 The stolen goods had been..tropical parrots, and..one of the San Diego detectives had subsequently succumbed to parrot fever.
1885Newton Dict. Birds (1896) 686 The home of the vast majority of *Parrot-forms is..within the tropics.
1627Peele's Merry Jests C iv b, At which shee biting her lip, in a *parat fury went downe the staires.
1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 138 The little Frogge of an excellent *Parrat-green, that usually sits on trees and bushes.
1885Stevenson Child's Gard. Verses, Trav. 4 Where below another sky *Parrot islands anchored lie.
1616T. Adams Pol. Hunting Wks. 1862 I. 16 Their ban-dogs, corrupt solicitors, *parrot-lawyers, that are their properties and mere trunks.
1901G. G. Coulton Public Schools & Public Needs 312 We cannot prevent..mere *parrot-learning, from counting somewhat..against real culture. 1977Observer 20 Mar. 13/3 There seem to be two potent reasons why memorising (or ‘parrot-learning’, as people ignorant of the mental capacities of parrots sometimes call it) should once more become a staple component of curricula.
1856Miss Mulock J. Halifax xxvi, His lips moved in a paroxysm of prayer—helpless, *parrot-learnt, Latin prayer.
1847Carpenter Zool. §458 The horny *parrot-like beaks of Cuttlefish. 1888F. Hume Mme. Midas i. v, Why do I repeat them, parrot-like? 1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 246 In the education of mentally feeble children, parrot-like repetition should be carefully avoided.
1891O. Wilde Pict. Dorian Gray v. 89 ‘Foolish child! foolish child!’ was the *parrot-phrase flung in answer. 1958People 4 May 4/2, I can get no comment except the parrot-phrase: ‘The Home Secretary is still considering this case.’
1907P. Fountain Rambles Austral. Naturalist ii. 8 *Parrot-pie is as much esteemed in Australia as rook-pie in England.
1923E. Sitwell Bucolic Comedies 25 Who came from the *parrot-plumed sea.
1804Wolcott (P. Pindar) Epist. to Ld. Mayor Wks. 1812 V. 206 Despise his mind and *parrot-prate.
1582Stanyhurst æneis i. (Arb.) 26 His prittye *parat prating.
1597A. M. tr. Guillemeau's Fr. Chirurg. lf. xv b/2 The pinsers which are callede ‘*parates billes’. 1866Treas. Bot. 298 C[lianthus] puniceus, called Parrot's-Bill..from the resemblance of the keeled petal to the bill of that bird.
1857Mayne Expos. Lex., *Parrot's Corn, common name for the seeds of the Carthamus tinctorius, or bastard saffron.
1936E. Sitwell Victoria of Eng. ii. 33 Her dark *parrot-sharp face.
1907P. Fountain Rambles Austral. Naturalist ii. 8 *Parrot-shooting is a favourite sport in Australia.
1931R. L. Ditmars Snakes of World Pl. 19 (caption) Green Tree Snake; Chocoya or *Parrot Snake, Leptophis occidentalis. Found from Guatemala to northern South America. Uniform leaf-green with two hair-like strips on the back. 1958J. Carew Wild Coast ii. 28 A green parrot-snake slithered down a coconut tree.
1895Daily News 19 Dec. 5/4 Spoken of as the *parrots' plague..called by Laics *parrots' rinderpest... One of the persons who died..at Versailles of the distemper was an officer's wife. She caught it by feeding the bird with sugar from her mouth.
1599Shakes. Much Ado i. i. 139 You are a rare *Parrat teacher.
1887C. A. Moloney Forestry W. Afr. 255 Too much time devoted in the past to the exercise of memory, to ‘*parrot’ teaching.
1849W. F. Lynch Exped. Jordan v. 91 Most of the Turks walk what is termed *parrot-toed, very much like our Indians.
1860Reade Cloister & H. lviii. (1896) 179 If you would but..hold your *parrot tongues. 1897Allbutt's Syst. Med. II. 357 Dry, brown-crusted, shrivelled tongue—‘the parrot-tongue’ of typhus.
1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. V. 283 The *parrot-tribe might be an instance.
[1829J. C. Loudon Encycl. Plants 266 One of the latest London catalogues (Mason's) enumerates six sorts of early blowing tulips; four perroquets or middle blowers; twenty-two double sorts.] 1856C. M. Yonge Daisy Chain ii. xxi. 586 She was nothing better than a *parrot-tulip, stuck up in a parterre. 1882Garden 13 May 333/3 A bunch of Parrot Tulips..in a tall Dutch jar. 1890O. Wilde Pict. Dorian Gray iii, in Lippincott's Monthly Mag. July 22 Some large blue china jars, filled with parrot-tulips, were ranged on the mantel-shelf. 1897Westm. Gaz. 11 May 2/1 That marvel of red and gold and green and terra-cotta, with its fantastic jagged petals and its sharp spur, which goes by the name of the parrot tulip. 1911J. Weathers Bulb Bk. 441/2 Parrot or Dragon Tulips. These curious-looking and remarkable Tulips are believed to be derived from T[ulipa] viridiflora. 1932A. J. Macself Bulbs v. 58 The Cottage, Darwin, and Parrot tulips..require similar general treatment. 1971R. Genders Collecting Antique Plants viii. 191 Early Parrot tulips are depicted in a water colour drawing about 1700... The artist is Herman Henstenburg.
1925R. Fry Let. 1 May (1972) II. 568 A lady with a *parrot voice screaming that she wanted a Picasso of the blue period. 1975C. Fremlin Long Shadow v. 37 ‘Very well, thank you,’ she heard her parrot voice saying..to the two or three people who rang up.
1828Lights & Shades I. 318 Their notions are in all cases alike infused in the true *parrot way.
1856J. W. Warter in Southey's Lett. (1856) II. 292 In what way Southey wished the Catechism taught,..not *parrotwise, but Christianwise.
1806Edin. Rev. VII. 468 Avoiding..what he calls *parrot-work.
1884Longm. Mag. Mar. 529 Certain tropical species of herrings and *parrot-wrasses.
Hence (nonce-wds.) parroˈtese [see -ese], parrot-language; ˈparrothood.
1889Max Müller Nat Relig. xiv. 361 The parrot never speaks parrotese. 1894Daily Tribune (N.Y.) 5 July, From early parrothood the lost one displayed a keen sense of the conventionalities of polite speech.
▪ II. parrot, v.|ˈpærət|
[f. prec., q.v. for Forms.]
1. intr. To chatter like a parrot; to repeat words or phrases in a mechanical manner, like that of a parrot taught to speak. Also to parrot it. Now only as absol. use of next.
1596Nashe Saffron Walden 136 Hee would do nothing but crake and parret it in Print, in how manie Noble-mens fauours hee was. 1612Chapman Widow's T. Plays 1873 III. 82 If you Parrat to me long. 1647Trapp Comm. 1 Cor. xiv. 15 It is not praying but parotting. I have read of a Parot in Rome, that could..say over the whole Creed. 1970C. Hampton Philanthropist iv. 49 Will you please stop parroting on about breakfast?
2. trans. To repeat (words) mechanically or by rote like a parrot; to iterate to weariness; to repeat or imitate without understanding or sense.
1649Heylin Relat. & Observ. ii. 202 If the Ministers will not parret forth the new States Doctrine to you, they shall be starved out of their Pulpits. 1805T. Holcroft Bryan Perdue I. 132 Boys parrot what they hear. 1823De Quincey Lett. Educ. v. (1860) 94 To parrot the ipsissima verba of Kant. 1872F. Hall False Philol. 31 The verb experience is, to Mr. White, parroting Dean Alford, altogether objectionable. 1880Grove's Dict. Mus. I. 225/2 An idea..which has been parrotted by incapable..critics. 1965Austral. Women's Weekly 20 Jan. 48/1 ‘I'll wait,’ he said. ‘He'll wait,’ she parroted. 1968Language XLIV. 204 School textbooks..had simply parroted a series of rules. 1971Nature 13 Aug. 456/2 Thus a child who produces the correct response when asked the AC question may do so by parroting a verbal label picked up during the initial comparisions. 1976Amer. Speech 1973 XLVIII. 259 She quickly muddies the water when she parrots the creed that all languages and dialects are equally fit to express ‘concepts such as time or relativity’. 1977Spare Rib Jan. 11/1 The catechism, which we had to be able to parrot, went into the different sorts of sins at great length.
3. trans. To teach to repeat in a mechanical parrot-like manner; to drill like a parrot.
1775S. J. Pratt Liberal Opin. iii. (1783) I. 9 The most sensible people are frequently parrotted; they think as they are bid to think, and talk the dull dialect of their teachers, from the cradle to the coffin. 1827Lamb Let. in Hazlitt Mary & C. Lamb (1874) 278 We are parroted into delicacy. 1890Sat. Rev. 15 Feb. 196/2 The rank and file are tutored and parroted by author, by manager, or by state-manager.
Hence ˈparroting vbl. n. and ppl. a.; ˈparroter, one who mechanically repeats something learned by rote.
a1603T. Cartwright Confut. Rhem. N.T. (1618) Pref. 5 Which had been liker vnto the prating, pratling, and parating of birds. a1700in D'Israeli Cur. Lit., Hist. Thea. during Suppression, Those proud parroting players, a sort of superbious ruffians. 1840De Quincey Style iii. Wks. 1890 X. 208 Passages of great musical effect..vulgarized by too perpetual a parroting. 1861Mill Autobiog. i. (1874) 31 Mere parroters of what they have learnt. 1934E. Pound Let. 30 Dec. (1971) 263 Mr. Croft seems to me an idiot... His kind of parroting seems to me exactly what does keep people from studying the classics. 1951G. Humphrey Thinking iii. 223 Much ‘parroting’ is not entirely meaningless. 1971Daily Tel. 1 Nov. 5/7 Rote learning—learning something by constant repetition or ‘parroting’—free recall and other memory tests were included. |