| 释义 |
Definition of popinjay in English: popinjaynoun ˈpɒpɪndʒeɪˈpɑpənˌdʒeɪ 1dated A vain or conceited person, especially one who dresses or behaves extravagantly. Example sentencesExamples - The Premiership has produced a marvellous cast of popinjays and prima-donnas.
- I am pretty sure I'm a drink-soaked popinjay myself, and formerly many things of a disreputable nature.
- Preening popinjays, in love with the sound of their voice and the rightness of their opinions, how I hate them all.
- These weedy fly-bitten popinjays, these pribbling clumsy clay-brained miscreants - how dare they think they can share the same job title as me?
- Gillray so lovingly renders the popinjay, and we laugh so deeply at his pretensions, that the savagery of the social criticism, though devastating, is somewhat mitigated.
- It is an oft-told story, but can still stir anger and pity, with the family feuding of the aristocratic popinjays commanding the brigade even spilling over onto the battlefield.
Synonyms dandy, beau, poseur, glamour boy, man about town, bright young thing, rake 2archaic A parrot. Example sentencesExamples - Coloring inside the lines is for popinjays and cockatoos!
Origin Middle English: from Old French papingay, via Spanish from Arabic babbaġā. The change in the ending was due to association with jay. parrot from early 16th century: The original English term for a parrot was popinjay. This came from French papingay which came, via Spanish, from Arabic babbaga, which may have been formed in imitation of the bird's cry. The ending of the French word was altered to resemble the name of the bird, the jay. The change to a term for a conceited, vain person came in the early 16th century. The origin of the word parrot may lie in the tendency to give pet birds human names. The word, recorded in the early 16th century, could represent French Pierrot, a pet form of Pierre ‘Peter’. People often address a pet bird as ‘Pretty Polly’, and the name Polly has been used to mean ‘a parrot’ since the early 19th century, while Poll is first recorded as a parrot's name in 1600. The word parakeet [M16th] may be a similar formation based on the Spanish given name Pedro, also ‘Peter’. Alternatively it may have come via Italian from a word meaning ‘little wig’, referring to the bird's head plumage. See also moon
Definition of popinjay in US English: popinjaynounˈpɑpənˌdʒeɪˈpäpənˌjā 1dated A vain or conceited person, especially one who dresses or behaves extravagantly. Example sentencesExamples - I am pretty sure I'm a drink-soaked popinjay myself, and formerly many things of a disreputable nature.
- These weedy fly-bitten popinjays, these pribbling clumsy clay-brained miscreants - how dare they think they can share the same job title as me?
- The Premiership has produced a marvellous cast of popinjays and prima-donnas.
- Preening popinjays, in love with the sound of their voice and the rightness of their opinions, how I hate them all.
- It is an oft-told story, but can still stir anger and pity, with the family feuding of the aristocratic popinjays commanding the brigade even spilling over onto the battlefield.
- Gillray so lovingly renders the popinjay, and we laugh so deeply at his pretensions, that the savagery of the social criticism, though devastating, is somewhat mitigated.
Synonyms dandy, beau, poseur, glamour boy, man about town, bright young thing, rake 2archaic A parrot. Example sentencesExamples - Coloring inside the lines is for popinjays and cockatoos!
Origin Middle English: from Old French papingay, via Spanish from Arabic babbaġā. The change in the ending was due to association with jay. |