Adjacent Words

Peacock definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

PE'ACOCK, n. [L. pavo.] A large and beautiful fowl of the genus Pavo, properly the male of the species, but in usage the name is applied to the species in general. The feathers of this fowl's tail are very long, and variegated with rich and elegant colors. The peacock is a native of India.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: European butterfly having reddish-brown wings each marked with a purple eyespot [syn: peacock, peacock butterfly, Inachis io]
2: male peafowl; having a crested head and very large fanlike tail marked with iridescent eyes or spots

Merriam Webster's

biographical name Thomas Love 1785-1866 English novelist & poet

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English pecok, from pe- (from Old English p?a peafowl, from Latin pavon-, pavo peacock) + cok cock Date: 14th century 1. a male peafowl distinguished by a crest of upright feathers and by greatly elongated loosely webbed upper tail coverts which are mostly tipped with iridescent spots and are erected and spread in a shimmering fan usually as a courtship display; broadly peafowl 2. one making a proud display of oneself ; show-off • peacockish adjective • peacocky adjective II. intransitive verb Date: 1818 show off

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 a male peafowl, having brilliant plumage and a tail (with eyelike markings) that can be expanded erect in display like a fan. 2 this type of ostentatious display. Phrases and idioms: peacock blue the lustrous greenish blue of a peacock's neck. peacock butterfly a butterfly, Inachis io, with eyelike markings on its wings. Etymology: ME pecock f. OE pea f. L pavo + COCK(1)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Peacock Pea"cock`, n. [OE. pecok. Pea- in this word is from AS. pe['a], p[=a]wa, peacock, fr. L. pavo, prob. of Oriental origin; cf. Gr. ?, ?, Per. t[=a]us, t[=a]wus, Ar. t[=a]wu?s. See Cock the bird.] 1. (Zo["o]l.) The male of any pheasant of the genus Pavo, of which at least two species are known, native of Southern Asia and the East Indies. Note: The upper tail coverts, which are long and capable of erection, are each marked with a black spot bordered by concentric bands of brilliant blue, green, and golden colors. The common domesticated species is Pavo cristatus. The Javan peacock (P. muticus) is more brilliantly colored than the common species. 2. In common usage, the species in general or collectively; a peafowl. Peacock butterfly (Zo["o]l.), a handsome European butterfly (Hamadryas Io) having ocelli like those of peacock. Peacock fish (Zo["o]l.), the European blue-striped wrasse (Labrus variegatus); -- so called on account of its brilliant colors. Called also cook wrasse and cook. Peacock pheasant (Zo["o]l.), any one of several species of handsome Asiatic pheasants of the genus Polyplectron. They resemble the peacock in color.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(peacocks) A peacock is a large bird. The male has a very large tail covered with blue and green spots, which it can spread out like a fan. ...peacocks strutting slowly across the garden. ...peacock feathers. N-COUNT

Easton's Bible Dictionary

(Heb. tuk, apparently borrowed from the Tamil tokei). This bird is indigenous to India. It was brought to Solomon by his ships from Tarshish (1 Kings 10:22; 2 Chr. 9:21), which in this case was probably a district on the Malabar coast of India, or in Ceylon. The word so rendered in Job 39:13 literally means wild, tumultuous crying, and properly denotes the female ostrich (q.v.).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

pe'-kok (tukkiyim (plural); Latin Pavo cristatus): A bird of the genus Pavo. Japan is the native home of the plainer peafowl; Siam, Ceylon and India produce the commonest and most gorgeous. The peacock has a bill of moderate size with an arched tip, its cheeks are bare, the eyes not large, but very luminous, a crest of 24 feathers 2 inches long, with naked shafts and broad tips of blue, glancing to green. The neck is not long but proudly arched, the breast full, prominent and of bright blue green, blue predominant. The wings are short and ineffectual, the feathers on them made up of a surprising array of colors. The tail consists of 18 short, stiff, grayish-brown feathers. Next is the lining of the train, of the same color. The glory of this glorious bird lies in its train. It begins on the back between the wings in tiny feathers not over 6 inches in length, and extends backward. The quills have thick shafts of purple and green shades, the eye at the tip of each feather from one-half to 2 inches across, of a deep peculiar blue, surrounded at the lower part by two half-moon-shaped crescents of green. Whether the train lies naturally, or is spread in full glory, each eye shows encircled by a marvel of glancing shades of green, gold, purple, blue and bronze. When this train is spread, it opens like a fan behind the head with its sparkling crest, and above the wondrous blue of the breast. The bird has the power to contract the muscles at the base of the quills and play a peculiar sort of music with them. It loves high places and cries before a storm in notes that are startling to one not familiar with them. The bird can be domesticated and will become friendly enough to take food from the hand. The peahen is smaller than the cock, her neck green, her wings gray, tan and brown--but she has not the gorgeous train. She nests on earth and breeds with difficulty when imported, the young being delicate and tender. The grown birds are hardy when acclimated, and live to old age. By some freak of nature, pure white peacocks are at times produced. Aristophanes mentioned peafowl in his Birds, II. 102, 269. Alexander claimed that he brought them into Greece from the east, but failed to prove his contention. Pliny wrote that Hortensius was the first to serve the birds for food, and that Aufidius Lurco first fattened and sold them in the markets. It was the custom to skin the bird, roast and recover it and send it to the table, the gaudy feathers showing.

The first appearance of the bird in the Bible occurs in a summing-up of the wealth and majesty of Solomon (1Ki 10:22 "For the king had at sea a navy of Tarshish with the navy of Hiram: once every three years came the navy of Tarshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks"). (Here the Septuagint translates peleketoi (s.c. lithoi), equals "(stones) carved with an ax.") The same statement is made in 2Ch 9:21: "For the king had ships that went to Tarshish with the servants of Huram; once every three years came the ships of Tarshish, bringing gold and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks" Septuagint omits). There is no question among scholars and scientists but that these statements are true, as the ships of Solomon are known to have visited the coasts of India and Ceylon, and Tarshish was on the Malabar coast of India, where the native name of the peacock was tokei, from which tukkiyim undoubtedly was derived (see GOLD, and The Expository Times, IX, 472). The historian Tennant says that the Hebrew names for "ivory" and "apes" were also the same as the Tamil. The reference to the small, ineffectual wing of the peacock which scarcely will lift the weight of the body and train, that used to be found in Job, is now applied to the ostrich, and is no doubt correct:

"The wings of the ostrich wave proudly;

But are they the pinions and plumage of love?" (Job 39:13).

While the peacock wing seems out of proportion to the size of the bird, it will sustain flight and bear the body to the treetops. The wing of the ostrich is useless for flight.

Gene Stratton-Porter

Moby Thesaurus

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