Etymology

woodcock

W4O1O1D2C3O1C3K5

Today it means: Any of several wading birds in the genus Scolopax, characterised by a long slender bill and cryptic brown and blackish plumage. Full definition →

Middle English wodecocke ← Old English wudecocc
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

woodcock · noun1

  1. Old English · inherited fromwudecocc
  2. Middle English · inherited fromwodecocke
  3. English todaywoodcock

From Middle English wodecocke, wode-koc, wodekok, from Old English wudecocc, wuducoc, equivalent to wood + cock.

Woodcock · proper noun2

  1. Old English · derived fromwuducoc“woodcock”
  2. English todayWoodcock

From Old English wuducoc (“woodcock”), a nickname for a stupid or gullible person.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.