释义 |
plovern. Origin: A borrowing from French. Etymons: French plover, plovier. Etymology: < Anglo-Norman plover (13th cent.), plovier, pluvier and Old French plovier (12th cent.), Old French, Middle French plouvier (13th cent.), pluvier (1505; French pluvier ) < post-classical Latin plovarius (1250 in a British source), pluviarius (1440, 1525, 1528 in British sources), pluverius , pluverus (1255, 1338, 1384, 1386, 1389 in British sources), further etymology uncertain and disputed: either < classical Latin pluvia rain (see pluvial adj.) + -ārius -ary suffix1, or an imitative formation (on account of the bird's call), apparently subsequently associated by folk etymology with pluvia rain. Compare scientific Latin pluviarius (1787 as a specific name). Compare Old Occitan pluvier (13th cent.; Occitan pluvièr), and perhaps also more remotely Italian regional piviere, Friulian ploé. Compare ( < French) Middle Dutch pluvier, plovier (Dutch pluvier). Compare Spanish pluvial (1569 or earlier; rare), French pluvial (18th cent. denoting a bird, 19th cent. denoting the plover). Compare also German Regenpfeifer, lit. ‘rain-piper’ (18th cent.).A number of discordant explanations have been offered in support of an etymology from pluvia rain (such as that the birds were so called because most easily taken in rainy weather, or because they arrive in flocks in the rainy season, or because of the restlessness of the bird when rain is approaching, or because of the appearance of the upper plumage, as if spotted with raindrops). This difficulty is resolved if the word is taken to have been originally imitative in origin. the world > animals > birds > order Charadriiformes > [noun] > family Charadriidae > member of (plover) society > morality > moral evil > licentiousness > unchastity > prostitution > [noun] > a prostitute > courtesan α. 1304–5 in Hist. MSS Comm.: Rep. MSS Ld. Middleton (1911) 325 in (Cd. 5567) XXVII. 1 (MED) x pluvers. 1312–13 in J. T. Fowler (1898) I. 10 50 pluvers. c1350 Nominale (Cambr. Ee.4.20) in (1906) 24* Pardys plouer et merle, Partrik plouer and osele. a1393 J. Gower (Fairf.) vi. 943 (MED) As the Plover doth, of Eir I live. c1440 (?a1400) 182 Pacokes and plouers, in platers of golde. a1500 in T. Wright & R. P. Wülcker (1884) I. 702/25 Calendula, a plovere. 1568 (a1500) Freiris Berwik 376 in W. T. Ritchie (1930) IV. 272 Pertrikis and pluveris befoir thame hes scho brocht. 1594 T. Nashe sig. G3 As fat and plum euerie part of her as a plouer. 1610 in P. Force (1844) III. 13 The riuers from August, or September, till February, are couered with flocks of Wildfoule: as swannes, geese,..plouers, [etc.]. 1661 R. Lovell 182 Plover. Pluvialis... The flesh is very pleasant, and better than the green Lapwing. 1706 T. D'Urfey i. i. 13 Puffin and Autumn Plover, your Wild-duck, Partridge, Ortolan, Quaile, Wheat Ear, Wood-cock, Snipe, Widgeon, Teale and Larks, by Dozens, fall down into your Dish all ready Roasted. 1763 4 156 The wheeling plover, and the timid hare. 1810 W. Scott v. 206 Fancy..in the plover's shrilly strain, The signal whistle heard again. 1894 A. Newton et al. 732 The birds just spoken of [sc. Squatarola, Charadrius] are those most emphatically entitled to be called Plovers; but the Dotterel, the group of Ringed Plovers..and the Lapwing, with their allies, have, according to usage, hardly less claim to the name. 1917 T. G. Pearson I. 255 Plovers' voices usually are mellow, piping whistles which have singular carrying power. 1960 H. S. Zim 17 The prairie is more likely to be on marl soil, and here killdeer, plovers, stilts, terns, and other shore birds may nest. 2001 J. Waterman ii. 135 Plovers are now picking for the larvae of the midges and crane flies that feed schools of arctic char. β. 1390–1 in J. T. Fowler (1901) III. 597 (MED) 18 plewers empt., 3 s.1486 sig. Fvjv A fall of Woodecockis. A Congregacion of Pleuers.1572 in J. Cranstoun (1891) I. xxxiii. 396 Peirtryks and pleuers pyping on the speit.1596 J. Dalrymple tr. J. Leslie (1888) I. 90 Kaipounis, pliueris and vtheris sik kynd of cheir.1668 in M. Wood (1950) X. 52 A dog..of scent so cliver As to miss neither hare or pliver.1728 A. Ramsay 12 Peartricks, teals, moor-powts, and plivers.the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > conformity with what is known, truth > deceit, deception, trickery > cheating, fraud > duping, making a fool of > [noun] > gullible person, dupe 1599 sig. K2 For a fowler Merrily playes on a pipe, when he craftily taketh a plouer. 1631 B. Jonson Staple of Newes ii. iii. 82 in II P. sc.: Who's here?..what Plouer's that They haue brought to pull? Bro. I know not, some green Plouer. I'le find him out. 1631 B. Jonson Bartholmew Fayre iv. v. 63 in II Here will be Zekiell Edgworth, and three or foure gallants, with him at night, and I ha' neither Plouer nor Quaile for 'hem. 1631 G. Chapman ii. i. sig. C 4 Why thou art a most greene Plouer in policy, I Perceiue. Compounds C1. a. 1904 H. Sutcliffe in 31 May 2/4 Wide wastes of sky and wind, Of hawk and plover-folk! the world > food and drink > hunting > fowling > fowling equipment > [noun] > net 1404 in W. H. Stevenson (1883) II. 22 j. plover nett, xij d. 1551 in J. Raine (1853) 71 To Thomas Parwyne on plower nett with all geyr pertenyng to it. 1956 10 July 4/7 A plover net containing three young was discovered on the sports field. 1848 30 Sept. 947/2 The theory of every kind of sport pursued on the continent of North America, from rail and plover shooting, up to the moose, the elk, and the grisly bear of the Rocky Mountains. 1874 J. W. Long iii. 74 Others, who understand plover-shooting better than wild-fowling, say, ‘Wait for them to double’. 1958 73 114 A good-natured but irascible widower, fonder of good wine and plover-shooting than of profit with risk. b. 1869 T. W. Higginson (1870) 197 Some lonely ride..on the plover-haunted barrens. a1902 S. Butler (1903) xv. 66 I see him trudging through muddy lanes and over long sweeps of plover-haunted pastures to visit a dying cottager's wife. C2. 1891 at Turnstone Plover-billed turnstone, same as surf-bird [citing H. Seebohm]. 1890 Plover-quail, any bird of the genus Pedionomus. 1890 Plover-snipe, any bird of the group Pressirostres. the world > animals > birds > order Charadriiformes > family Scolopacidae (snipes, etc.) > [noun] > lymnocryptes minimus (jack snipe) the world > animals > birds > order Charadriiformes > family Scolopacidae (snipes, etc.) > [noun] > member of genus Tringa > unspecified and miscellaneous types the world > animals > birds > order Charadriiformes > family Scolopacidae (snipes, etc.) > [noun] > genus Calidris > calidris alpinus (dunlin) 1892 W. Dickinson 380 Sea moose,..Plover's page, Plover's provider. Derivatives 1873 H. B. Tristram xii. 217 The sand-grouse,..plover-like, kept skimming past in flocks large and small. 1895 Apr. 766 We have the pratincoles..curious little ploverlike birds. 1925 Jan. 10 The eastern godwit, a plover-like bird which nests in Alaska and in eastern Siberia, spends the winter in New Zealand. 2001 (Nexis) 27 Apr. 13D Killdeer, a plover-like bird, nests in the island's open, grassy areas. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022). < n.1304 |