rain-fowln.
/ˈreɪnfaʊl/, U.S. /ˈreɪnˌfaʊl/ A bird popularly associated with rain.† 3. The mistle thrush, Turdus viscivorus. Obsolete. rare.
1. English regional (northern) in later use. Now rare (perhaps historical). A woodpecker; esp. the green woodpecker, Picus viridis. Cf. rainbird n. 1.
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the world > animals > birds > perching birds > order Piciformes > [noun] > family Picidae > genus Picus (woodpecker) > picus viridis (green woodpecker)
rain-fowl1440
woodwall1490
speight1513
hickwall?1533
rainbird1544
woodspite1555
green-peak1598
yaffingale1609
pick-a-tree1615
witwall1668
storm cock1769
nicker-pecker1787
yaffle1792
awl-bird1802
popinjay1802
yaffler1802
dirt-bird1847
yuckle1847
stock eagle1884
nicker1886
Promptorium Parvulorum (Harl. 221) 428 Reyn fowle, bryd (or Wodewale, or Wodehake, infra), gaulus.
1678 J. Ray tr. F. Willughby Ornithol. 135 The green Woodpecker..called also the Rain-fowl.
1769 J. Wallis Nat. Hist. Northumberland I. 321 The lesser spotted Woodpecker..Our common people call them Pick-a-trees, also Rain-fowl, from their being more loud and noisy before rain.
1774 O. Goldsmith Hist. Earth V. 249 The Green Wood-spite or Wood-pecker is called the Rain-Fowl in some parts of the country.
1846 W. E. Brockett J. T. Brockett's Gloss. North Country Words (ed. 3) II. 88 Rain-birds, Rain-fowl, popular names for woodpeckers. These birds are well known by their loud and peculiar cries, which, frequently repeated, are thought to prognosticate rain.
1913 H. K. Swann Dict. Names Brit. Birds 187 Rain-bird, Rain-fowl, or Rain-pye: The Green Woodpecker.
1999 Guardian 13 May i. 18/7 In Sussex, the green woodpecker is known as the rain-bird, while in Northumberland it is the rain-fowl.
2. Any of several cuckoos (family Cuculidae). Cf. rainbird n. 2. Now rare.
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the world > animals > birds > perching birds > order Cuculiformes (cuckoos, etc.) > [noun] > family Cuculidae > piaya pluvialis
old man1694
rain-fowl1694
rainbird1725
rain cuckoo1782
hunter1847
1694 J. Ray in H. Ellis Orig. Lett. Eminent Lit. Men (1843) 200 The referring of the Old-men, or Rain-fowls, to the Cuckow.
1840 E. Blyth et al. Cuvier's Animal Kingdom 215 The Rain-fowl (Scythrops, Latham)... Only one is known, the Australian Rain-fowl (Scr. australasia, Shaw), a grey bird of the size of a Crow.
1951 Amer. Speech 26 269 The mourning dove, known also as rain dove..and as rain crow.., may have got part of its reputation as a rain bird through confusion..with the cuckoos, our most generally known rain fowl.
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the world > animals > birds > order Passeriformes (singing) > family Muscicapidae (thrushes, etc.) > subfamily Turdinae > [noun] > genus Turdus (thrush) > turdus viscivorus (mistle-thrush)
song thrush1598
mistle-bird1626
mistle thrush1646
shreitch1668
shrite1668
mistletoe thrush1719
storm cock1769
wood-thrush1791
rain-fowl1817
thrice-cock1819
mistle1845
hollin cock1848
fen-thrush1854
storm thrush1854
shirlcock1859
fell-thrush1879
felt1879
jay1880
jay pie1880
Norman thrush1885
stone-thrush1885
1817 T. Forster Synoptical Catal. Brit. Birds 9 Turdus viscivorus..Storm Cock, Storm Bird,..Rain Fowl.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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