| 释义 |
ptarmigan|ˈtɑːmɪgən|
Forms: α. 6 termigan, termigen, 7 termigant, termagant, tormichan, 8 tormican, tarmichen, tarmachan. β. 7– ptarmigan, (9 ptarmacan, -gan).
[In Lowland Sc. use before 1600; = Gaelic tàrmachan; ulterior history and origin unknown; see Note below. Originally with initial t; the spelling with pt appears first in Sibbald 1684, and was app. pseudo-etymological, after words from Greek, presumably ptarmic, ptarmical, then known in medicine. Being unfortunately taken from Sibbald by Pennant in 1768, it has passed into ornithological and general English use.]
A bird of the grouse family (Lagopus alpinus or mutus) which inhabits high altitudes in Scotland and Northern Europe, the Alps and Pyrenees. The plumage changes from ash-grey and black in summer to white in winter. Also called the White or Rock Grouse. b. The name is extended generically to other species of Lagopus, as L. albus of Europe and Asia, L. rupestris of N. America, etc.
α1599Sc. Acts Jas. VI (1816) IV. 180/2 They discharge ony persone quhasumeuir..To sell or by ony..partridgis muir foullis blak cokis aithehenis Termiganis. 1600Ibid. 236/2 Termigenis. 1621Ibid. 628/2 Termigantis. 1617Jas. I Let. to Ld. Tullibardine in Gray Birds W. Scotl. (1871) 230 The known commoditie yee have to provide capercaillies and termigantis. 1618J. Taylor (Water P.) Pennyles Pilgr. F j. Capons, Chickins, Partridge, Moorecoots, Heathcocks, Caperkellies and Termagants. 1685Sc. Acts Jas. VII (1820) VIII. 475/2 That all persons forbear to Slay any Muirfoul, Heathfoul, Partridge, Quail, Duck or Mallard, Taile or Ataile or Tormichan from and after the first day of Lent to the first of July. 1726Macfarlane's Geog. Collect. (S.H.S.) I. 222 Black cock, muire fowles, tarmichen. c1730Burt Lett. N. Scotl. xxi. (1754) II. 169 The Tormican is near about the Size of the Moor-Fowl (or Groust). 1799J. Robertson Agric. Perth 461 Grouse, heath-fowl and Tarmachans in abundance inhabit every hill.
β1684Sibbald Scotia Illustr. ii. iii. iii. 16 Lagopus Avis Aldrov. Perdix alba Sabaudis..Nostratibus the Ptarmigan. 1768Pennant Zool. I. 206 The tail of the Ptarmigan consists of sixteen feathers. 1808Sporting Mag. XXXII. 214 A number of muir fowl..ptarmacans, rats, mice &c. 1810Scott Lady of L. ii. xxv, His eagle eye The ptarmigan in snow could spy. 1868Queen Victoria Life Highl. 68 Albert left me to go after Ptarmigan.
b.1893Newton Dict. Birds 389 It is to [the Willow-Grouse, Lagopus albus] that belong, almost without exception, the thousands of birds sold in our markets as ‘Ptarmigan’.
Comb.1904Westm. Gaz. 7 Sept. 3/1 Ptarmigan-shooting would be tame sport were it not for the savagery of the sublime and sterile surroundings.
[Note. The existing Gaelic tàrmachan evidently goes back, through the cited tarmichen and tormican, to tormichan in 1685, and prob. much earlier. It has the form of a diminutive of tàrmach (cf. balachan, dim. of balach boy, tulachan, dim. of tulach hillock, etc.); and tàrmach is given as a synonym in living use in Armstrong's and the Highland Society's Dictionaries. The word has thus all the appearance of being native; à priori, also, it is natural that the name of a bird found only on the Highland mountains should have been Gaelic. But tàrmach has no obvious derivation in Gaelic; and some Celtic scholars think that it may be a foreign word which has put on a Celtic guise. On the other hand, the word, if not from Gaelic, is without any etymology in Lowland Sc., for termagant can only be considered a popular perversion of the ‘sparrow-grass’ order.] |