yaffingalen.
/ˈjafɪŋɡeɪl/ southern and south-western dialect.
The green woodpecker; = yaffle 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
1609 C. Butler Feminine Monarchie vii. sig. H5v The wood-pecker or yippingale.
1802 G. Montagu Ornithol. Dict. at Woodpecker—Green Green Woodpecker... Yappingale. Yaffle, or Yaffler.
1865 Cornhill Mag. July 35 Mr. Matthew Arnold has very justly praised Maurice de Guérin for speaking of the woodpecker's laugh. But the West-country peasant ages ago called it the ‘yaffingale’, that is, the laugh-singer.
1866 R. D. Blackmore Cradock Nowell i The tap of the yaffingale.
1872 Ld. Tennyson Last Tournament in Gareth & Lynette 132 The garnet-headed yaffingale.
1888 B. Lowsley Gloss. Berks. Words & Phrases Yelpingal, the woodpecker.
1906 G. A. B. Dewar Faery Year 198 The statement of the gamekeeper that he had seen a ‘black yappingal’.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1921; most recently modified version published online June 2021).
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