peacock

English

Wikipedia

A peacock.

A peacock

Etymology

From Middle English po (“peacock”) + coc (see cock (n.)). Po is from Old English pāwa (“peafowl”), from Latin pavo (gen. pavonis), which, with Ancient Greek ταώς (taōs), said to be ultimately from Tamil தோகை (tōkai) (but perhaps is imitative; Latin represented the peacock's sound as paupulo). Used as the type of a vainglorious person from late 14c. Its flesh superstitiously believed to be incorruptible (even St. Augustine credits this). "When he sees his feet, he screams wildly, thinking that they are not in keeping with the rest of his body."

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈpiːkɔk/

• Audio (US)

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Noun

peacock (plural peacocks)

1. A male or female pheasant of the two genera: Pavo or Afropavo, whose males have extravagant tails.
2. A vainglorious person

Synonyms

• peafowl rare

Hyponyms

• peachick
• peahen

Derived terms

• peacock butterfly
• peacocking
• proud as a peacock

Translations

bird

• Albanian: palloi (sq)
• Arabic: طاووس (ar) (ṭāwūs) m

  Egyptian Arabic: طاووس (ṭāwūs) m

• Armenian: սիրամարգ (hy) (siramarg) 
• Aromanian: pãun (rup)
• Azeri: tovuz (az)
• Basque: pauma
• Belarusian: паўлін (be) (paŭlín) m 
• Breton: paun
• Bulgarian: паун (bg) (paún) m 
• Burmese: ဒေါင်း (my) (daung:)
• Catalan: paó
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 孔雀 (cmn) (kǒngquè)

• Czech: páv (cs) m
• Danish: påfugl (da)
• Dutch: pauw (nl) m
• Esperanto: (♂♀) pavo (eo), (♂) virpavo (eo), (neologism ♂) paviĉo (eo)
• Estonian: paabulind
• Faroese: páfuglur (fo)
• Finnish: riikinkukko (fi)
• French: paon (fr) m, paonne (fr) f
• Friulian: pavon
• Galician: pavo real, pavón (gl) m
• Georgian: ფარშევანგი (ka) (p'arševangi) 
• German: (♂♀) Pfau (de) m, (♂) Pfauhahn (de) m
• Greek: παγώνι (el) (pagóni) n 
• Hawaiian: pikake
• Hebrew: טוס (he) (tavás), טַוָּס (he) (tavás)
• Hindi: मोर (hi) (mor) m
• Hungarian: páva (hu)
• Icelandic: páfugl (is) m
• Ido: (♂♀) pavono (io), (♂) pavonulo (io)
• Indonesian: merak jantan (id)
• Irish: péacóg (ga)
• Italian: pavone (it)
• Japanese: 孔雀 (ja) (くじゃく, kujaku), ピーコック (ja) (pīkokku)
• Jèrriais: paon m
• Kannada: ನವಿಲು, ಮಯೂರ, ಕೇಕಿ
• Korean: 공작 (ko) (gong-jak) (孔雀 (ko))
• Ladin: pavon
• Latin: Pavo cristatus (la)
• Latvian: pāvs

• Lithuanian: povas (lt)
• Lower Sorbian: paw
• Luxembourgish: Pohunn (lb) m
• Macedonian: паун (mk) (páun) m
• Malay: merak (ms)
• Malayalam: മയില്‍ (mayil)
• Maltese: pagun
• Manx: kellagh eairkagh (gv) m (male only), peacock (gv) m, kellagh aalin (gv) m
• Norwegian: påfugl (no) m
• Occitan: pavon
• Old Norse: pái m
• Persian: طاووس (fa) (tâvus)
• Polish: paw (pl) m
• Portuguese: pavão real, pavão
• Romani: pavuno m
• Romanian: păun (ro) m
• Romansch: pavun
• Russian: павлин (ru) (pavlín) m 
• Sami: pávvuonccis
• Sardinian: baboni, pavone, pavoni, paoni, poni, paboni, paone
• Scottish Gaelic: peucag (gd) f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: паун (sh) m

  Roman: paun (sh) m

• Slovak: páv (sk)
• Slovene: pav (sl) m
• Spanish: pavo real (es) m, pavorreal (es) m
• Swahili: tausi (sw)
• Swedish: påfågel (sv)
• Tamil: மயில் (mayil)
• Telugu: నెమలి (nemali)
• Thai: นกยูง (th) (nók-yoong)
• Turkish: tavus kuşu (tr), tavus (tr)
• Ukrainian: павич (uk) (pavýč) m 
• Upper Sorbian: paw
• Urdu: مور (ur) (mor) m
• Uzbek: tovuq (uz)
• Vietnamese: chim công (vi)
• Volapük: (♂♀) paf (vo), (♂) hipaf (vo), (♀) jipaf (vo)
• Welsh: paun (cy)
• West Frisian: pau
• Yiddish: פּאַווע (yi) (pave) f

See also

• pajock