Where does “woodpecker” come from?
Woodpecker combines English wood and English head, from Old English wudu, ultimately deriving from Proto-Indo-European roots including weh₂t-, widʰu-, kauput-, and kapōlo.
woodpecker (English): Any bird of many-species subfamily Picinae, with...
Definitions
- Any bird of many-species subfamily Picinae, with...
Ancestry of “woodpecker”, step by step
woodpecker traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English Wood
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | Wood | An English topographic surname for someone who lived in or near a wood |
| 2 | English | Frog | Alternative form of frog |
| 3 | Portuguese | froco | flock |
| 4 | Latin | floccus | tuft, wisp of wool |
| 5 | Frankish | flokko | down, wool, flock |
| 6 | Proto-Germanic | *flukkô | — |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | plewk- | to fly, flow, run; to splash, to flap with hands |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | plew- | to fly, flow, run |