black gamen.
/ˌblak ˈɡeɪm/, U.S. /ˌblæk ˈɡeɪm/ With plural agreement: black grouse, Tetrao tetrix, collectively. Also (with singular agreement): the species itself.
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the world > animals > birds > order Galliformes (fowls) > family Tetraonidae (grouse) > [noun] > member of genus Lyrurus (black grouse)
heath-cock1590
black game1673
black grouse1673
heath-poult1678
heath-bird1683
moor game1769
1673 J. Ray Coll. Eng. Words 85 The common Heath cock, Black game or Grous.
1747 Dublin Jrnl. 29 Sept.–3 Oct. 2/1 Our North Country Readers may be upon their Guard..by a Report that some young Gentlemen were only come to kill Black Game in the Isle of Sky.
1789 G. White Nat. Hist. Selborne 16 There was a nobler species of game in this forest, now extinct.., and that was the heath-cock, black game, or grouse.
1817 W. Scott Rob Roy I. vii. 162 The law against unauthorized destroyers of black-game, grouse, partridges, and hares.
1879 Daily News 12 Aug. 5/1 The Twentieth when black game are (legally) fair game.
1945 J. G. Mann European Arms & Armour (Wallace Coll. Catal.) iii. 321 ‘Tschinke’..became popular early in the seventeenth century for bustard and black game shooting.
1998 D. Pool What Jane Austen ate & Charles Dickens Knew (new ed.) 152 Game was defined legally as hare, partridge, pheasant, black game (black grouse), red grouse and bustard.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2011; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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