:pop·in·jay - (pŏp'ĭn-jā')
-A vain, talkative person.
This time decided to dwell on the word which actually traces its origin to the arabic set of words. This word was originally used to denote a parrot. It travelled along with the bird from africa and after suitable modifications from the arabic 'babbaga', through Spanish 'papagayo' and Old French ' 'papeiaye', it was recorded as 'papengay' in the earlier english versions. It finally ended as popinjay after people thought it was used to describe a certain jay.
The word derives its meaning from its earlier associations with the parrot, which is identified as gaudy, sqwaking and a tendency to repeat what it hears without understanding.
According to the British language commentator Michael Quinion "This deeply insulting word is now rather dated or literary."
A good example can be found in Joseph Conrad’s short story The End of the Tether of 1902: “When he looked around in the club he saw only a lot of conceited popinjays too selfish to think of making a good woman happy”.
6 comments:
OH, you mean the POPPAT!!
:)
well the parrot is called a popat here in Mumbai,( Not Mia Mithooo)
SOmething I too have leanred!!
Though I understand the conotation of POPINJAY is different..
me just commenting on the pic!!
that reminds me of Captain Haddock's swear word 'squawking popinjay' :-)
but its really unfortunate how natural animal behaviours/temperaments are used as connotations for humans. like mule, ass, dog, swine, pig, popinjay
abhishek : poppat means parrot??? hmmm, didn't know that,thanks, my hindi is very shaky, not much spoken in the south and not that great a fan of bollywood :):)
666: yes, its really unfortuanate, infact there was a sarcastic rejoinder to this in one of the dr doolittle books by the pig Gub Gub who cited various terms in animal language derived from the obnoxious behaviour of humans :):)
:) the Old french version "'papeiaye" reminds me of the hindi "papiha"..wonder if hindi/punjabi-speaking Abhishek or 666 can confirm that for moi, about any relation with the word.
adding to 666's list : bitchy, foxy, cuckoo, ape, reptilian, cocky, bull, catty/feline..................
Now i know y u told me to read this.. :)
:pop·in·jay - (pŏp'ĭn-jā')
-A vain, talkative person.
I shud ve been named notjay..Anyways Keep the fun work going..nice job.
jay: ha ha, I didn't say anthing :), someone seems to have a guilty conscience :):),so I am guessing u wouldn't want to be referred to as jay anymore. keep visiting semantica now that u've made a start.
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