chough - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Wikispecies

From Middle English choughe, choȝe, coo, cheo, from Old English ċēo (“a bird of the genus Corvus, a jay, crow, jackdaw, chough”) and ċeahhe (“a daw”), both from Proto-West Germanic *kahu (“jackdaw, crow”), from imitative Proto-Indo-European *gewH- (“to crow, caw, shout”).

Cognate with Scots kae (“jackdaw”), West Frisian ka (“jackdaw”), Dutch kauw (“jackdaw, daw, chough”), Swedish kaja (“jackdaw”).

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /t͡ʃʌf/
• (General Australian, New Zealand) IPA^(key): /t͡ʃɐf/
• (Northern England) IPA^(key): /t͡ʃʊf/
• Rhymes: -ʌf
• Homophone: chuff

chough (plural choughs)

1. Either of two species of bird of the genus Pyrrhocorax in the crow family Corvidae that breed mainly in high mountains and on coastal sea cliffs of Eurasia.

   • c. 1521, John Shelton, Speke Parott‎^[1], archived from the original on 2020-12-05, lines 205–210:

     For Parrot is no churlish chowgh, nor flekyd pye, (chough; peacock) / Parrot is no pendugum that men call a carlyng, (witch) / Parrot is no woodecocke, nor no butterfly, / Parrot is no stameryng stare, that men call a starlyng; (starling) / But Parrot is my owne dere harte and my dere derling. (dear) / Melpomene, that fayre mayde, she burneshed his beke: (polished) / I pray you, let Parrot have lyberte to speke.

2. The white-winged chough, of genus Corcorax in the Australian mud-nest builders family, Corcoracidae, that inhabits dry woodlands.

   Synonym: hermit-crow

• alpine chough (Pyrrhocorax graculus)
• red-billed chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax)
• white-winged chough (Corcorax melanorhamphos)
• yellow-billed chough