• popinjay •
Pronunciation: pah-pin-jay • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: 1. A vain, conceited, pompous person, a coxcomb, a fop. 2. A loquacious, talkative person, a blabbermouth.
Notes: This Good and colorful Word originally referred to a parrot, which explains the two rather unrelated meanings "show-off" and "blabbermouth". You may use this word as an adjective meaning "vividly or garishly bright" when referring to colors, as popinjay blue or popinjay green.
In Play: Popinjay began as a metaphor for a brightly multicolored bird and referred to people who were dressed showily. It has since migrated to people who show off in any manner: "August March is such a strutting popinjay, I doubt he would deign even to speak to a general with fewer than four stars." As a result of the association with jays—not to mention the parrot's own talkativeness—the word's meaning today is slipping toward loquacity: "That smarmy popinjay in the front office won't let you get a word in edgewise."
Word History: Today's Good Word started out as Old French papegai "parrot" (perroquet today in French). The French could have gotten the word from any number of European languages: Russian popugai and Spanish, papagayo are just two languages that still use it. It reached Greek as papagas by the Middle Ages, a word which survives as papagalos today. The Europeans appropriated the word from Arabic babaga, probably during the Crusades. Arabic assumed the word from Persian babbagha. The Persian word is probably onomatopoetic, an imitation of parrot babbling. The last syllable changed to -jay in English under the influence of the word for jays, another chatty bird more familiar to our English ancestors.
POPINJAY
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POPINJAY
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Re: POPINJAY
I'm guessing this is the origin of Mozart's characters of Papageno and Papagena?
In Play: Popinjay began as a metaphor for a brightly multicolored bird and referred to people who were dressed showily. ...[snip]...
Word History: Today's Good Word started out as Old French papegai "parrot" (perroquet today in French). The French could have gotten the word from any number of European languages: Russian popugai and Spanish, papagayo are just two languages that still use it. It reached Greek as papagas by the Middle Ages, a word which survives as papagalos today. ...[snip]...
-gailr
This is a word I associate with PG Wodehouse, and perhaps some writers a bit before his time. But the Online Etymology Dictionary has the word in use as early as 1528.
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. Lately it hasn't been working."
Anonymous
Anonymous
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- Great Grand Panjandrum
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This is another great Bill O'Reilly word, along with his admonition to be pithy; no bloviating allowed by his guests or his listeners in their emails.
Regards//Larry
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
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- Great Grand Panjandrum
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Re: POPINJAY
Whence comes today's parakeets, as in John and Ezra Jack• popinjay •
...Word History: Today's Good Word started out as Old French papegai "parrot" (perroquet today in French). ..
Regards//Larry
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
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- Grand Panjandrum
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Deemed apparently appropriate for the name of a hotelin, of all ostentatious places, Scotland. Presumably the staff is right smarmy.
Stop! Murder us not, tonsured rumpots! Knife no one, fink!
I see in the amenities section they do have dogs and a bar, no smoking, but there is Wifi and something denoted by an arrow pointing up and down but it's got a red slash across it so they don't have up and down, is it a ranch?
mark gets-confused Bailey
mark gets-confused Bailey
Last edited by Bailey on Sat Dec 23, 2006 8:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Today is the first day of the rest of your life, Make the most of it...
kb
I took it to mean the laws of gravity don't apply.I see in the amenities section they do have dogs and a bar, no smoking, but there is Wifi and something denoted buy an arrow pointing up and down but it's got a red slash across it so they don't have up and down, is it a ranch?
mark gets-confused Bailey
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- Great Grand Panjandrum
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I just found another reference at Wikipedia whilst looking up The Twelve Days of Christmas:
The question now is, is the "aye" pronounced "ī" as in a sailor's "aye-aye" or "ā" as in "Eh?" The latter would be closer to the "jay" in "popinjay."In Scotland early in the nineteenth century the song was started with:
"The King sent his lady on the first Yule day,A popingo-aye (parrot) Wha learns my carol and carries it away?"
Regards//Larry
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
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- Great Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 2578
- Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 3:56 pm
- Location: Crownsville, MD
I just found another reference at Wikipedia whilst looking up The Twelve Days of Christmas:
The question now is, is the "aye" pronounced "ī" as in a sailor's "aye-aye" or "ā" as in "Eh?" The latter would be closer to the "jay" in "popinjay." It would also rhyme with "day" and "away."In Scotland early in the nineteenth century the song was started with:
"The King sent his lady on the first Yule day,A popingo-aye (parrot) Wha learns my carol and carries it away?"
Regards//Larry
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
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- Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 1476
- Joined: Wed Apr 12, 2006 1:58 pm
- Location: Carolinia Agrestícia: The Forest Primeval
Of course, they could all be pronounced "ī", eh? The dipthong seems likely....
The question now is, is the "aye" pronounced "ī" as in a sailor's "aye-aye" or "ā" as in "Eh?" The latter would be closer to the "jay" in "popinjay." It would also rhyme with "day" and "away."
Stop! Murder us not, tonsured rumpots! Knife no one, fink!
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