Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Popinjay |
PopinjayNoun1. A vain and talkative person (chatters like a parrot). 2. Archaic. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "popinjay" was first used: 1270. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Literature | Popinjay A butterfly man, a fop; so called from the popinjay or figure of a bird shot at for practice. The jay was decked with parti-coloured feathers so as to resemble a parrot, and, being suspended on a pole, served as a target. He whose ball or arrow brought down the bird by cutting the string by which it was hung, received the proud title of "Captain Popinjay," or "Captain of the Popinjay," for the rest of the day, and was escorted home in triumph. (See Old Mortality, ch. ii.) "I then, all smarting with my wounds being cold, To be so pestered with a popinjay, Answered neglectingly I know not what, He should or he should not." Shakespeare: 1 Henry IV., i. 3. The Festival of the Popinjay. The first Sunday in May. (See above. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Crosswords: Popinjay |
| English words defined with "popinjay": Papagay, Papejay ♦ Yaffle. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "popinjay": Muscadins of Paris. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "popinjay": Papejay. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Lang Coortin' | Carroll, Lewis | Then up and spake the popinjay, Sae wisely counselled he. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Popinjay" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Popinjay" is used about 7 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 7 | 133,076 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
popinjay | 3 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "popinjay"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | papagall (parrot), llafazan (babbler, big mouth, blab, blabber, blatant, chatterbox, chatterer, chatty, diffusive, flibbertigibbet, gabber, garrulous, gasbag, gossip, gossipmonger, gossipy, long-tongued, loose-tongued, magpie, mouther, prattler, rattle-box, rattler, rattletrap, sieve, spieler, storyteller, talebearer, talkative, tattler, tattletale, telltale, windbag). (various references) | |
Arabic | مغرور (allured, arrogant, cocky, conceited, dazzled, deceived, deluded, fooled, haughty, lured, misled, overweening, proud, self-conceited, self-important, snobbish, vain, vainglorious), حقير (abject, base, beggarly, blackguardly, cheap, despicable, dingy, dirty, frowzy, grubby, ignoble, inferior, insignificant, lousy, low, low down, lowly, mean, menial, niggling, paltry, pettifogger, petty, pip squeak, pitiable, pitiful, poor, rotten, scabby, scaly, scoundrelly, scruffy, scummy, scurvy, servile, shabby, shoddy, slavish, slim, slushy, small minded, snide, sod, squalid, swine, tacky, trifling, ungracious, unworthy, varmint, vile, villainous, worthless, wretched), طائش (bad, careless, flighty, foolhardy, frivolous, giddy, harebrained, hasty, heedless, impetuous, imprudent, inadvertent, inconsiderate, indiscreet, injudicious, libertine, light, light minded, light-headed, lunatic, mad, madcap, muddle-headed, random, rash, rattle-brained, reckless, scatter-brain, scatter-brained, scatty, stray, stunned, thoughtless, unadvised, unwise), المتبجح (boaster, bouncer, brag, cracker, egoist, egotist, windbag). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | конте (adonis, beau, chappy, corinthian, dude, exquisite, fop, gallant, jack-a-dandy, nut, sharpy, swell, toff), перчо, папагал (copy-cat, parrot, poll). (various references) | |
French | freluquet, fat. (various references) | |
German | laffe (flash harry, jackanapes), geck (attitudinizer, buck, Dandy, dude, fop, Peacock, poseur). (various references) | |
Greek | παπαγάλοσ (parrot, poll). (various references) | |
Hebrew | מתרברב (bumptious, overweening, vain), י"יר (arrogant, conceited, haughty, high and mighty, overweening, pompous, presumptuous, snob, snooty, snotty, supercilious, swollen), תוכי (inner, interim, internal, intestine, intrinsic, intrinsical, parrot), שחצן (arrogant, boastful, conceited, haughty, overbearing, presumptuous, smart aleck, snob, snooty, whippersnapper), פטפטן (chatterbox, gossipmonger, prattler, tattletale, windbag). (various references) | |
Hungarian | üresfejû (empty headed, feather brain). (various references) | |
Italian | zerbinotto (fop). (various references) | |
Manx | parrad (parrot). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | opinjaypay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | papagaio (kite, parrot). (various references) | |
Romanian | papagal (parakeet, parrot). (various references) | |
Russian | попугай (parrot). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | papagaj (parrot), zelena žuna, vetropir (scatter-brain), vetrogonja. (various references) | |
Spanish | petimetre (buck, dude, exquisite, fop, toff), pedante (bookish, pedant, pedantic, pedantical, prig, priggish, scholastic), fatuo (conceited, coxcomb, fatuous). (various references) | |
Swedish | pratmakare (babbler, blatherskite, bletherskate, cackler, chatterbox, chatter-box, chatterer, flibbertigibbet, gabber, Prater, prattler, rattler, talker, windbag), papegoja (parrot), sprätt (beau, blood, cockscomb, coxcomb, dandy, dude, fop, gallant, jack-a-dandy, jackanapes, toff). (various references) | |
Turkish | papağan şeklindeki ok hedefi, papağan (parrot, Polly), züppe (adonis, beau, buck, conceited pup, coxcomb, dandified, Dandy, dude, fop, high hat, jack-a-dandy, jackanapes, La-di-da, la-di-dah, macaroni, nob, Peacock, petit-maitre, pup, puppy, snob, spark, swell, toff). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | чепурун (buck, Dandy), папуга (parrot). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | kẻ kiêu căng, kẻ hợm mình. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Persian | 800-Modern | babgha. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "popinjay": popinjays. (additional references) | |
| |
"Popinjay" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Copinsay, poppenjay. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-i-j-n-o-p-p-y" | |
-3 letters: nappy, nippy, piano, yapon. | |
-4 letters: ayin, jiao, join, naoi, nipa, pain, pian, pina, piny, pion, pipy, pony, pyin, yoni. | |
-5 letters: ain, ani, any, ion, jay, jin, joy, nap, nay, nip, pan, pap, pay, pia, pin, pip, poi, pop, pya, yap, yin, yip, yon. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-i-j-n-o-p-p-y" | |
+1 letter: popinjays. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Commercial 4. Quotations: Fiction | 5. Usage Frequency 6. Expressions: Internet 7. Translations: Modern 8. Translations: Ancient | 9. Derivations 10. Anagrams 11. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
