woodpecker

What it means

1. Any bird of the species-rich family Picidae, with a strong pointed beak suitable for pecking holes in wood.

   His skin was scarlet like the head of the green woodpecker.

   1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 19

   3 more examples

   On its summit towered aloft the fir tree which has often been referred to, like a mighty mast, full of woodpeckers' holes.

   1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 89

   An adult female of this rare woodpecker was taken at 6,000 feet in April 1925 near Chingchuan in the forests of northern Szechuan.

   1928 August, Outram Bangs, James L. Peters, “Birds Collected by Dr. Joseph F. Rock in Western Kansu and Eastern Tibet”, in Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy, volume LXVIII, number 7, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard College, →OCLC, page 333

   Birdwatchers would enjoy a host of sparrows, a herd of swans, a descent of woodpeckers, a herd of wrens, and mutation of thrushes.

   1984, Virginia Wildlife, volume 45, Virginia Commission of Game and Inland Fisheries

   Synonyms: speight

2. slanggovernmentA Type 92 heavy machine gun.

In a sentence

On its summit towered aloft the fir tree which has often been referred to, like a mighty mast, full of woodpeckers' holes.

1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 89

Where it comes from

1. Proto-Indo-European*dwóh₁
2. Proto-Indo-European*dwi-
3. Proto-Indo-European*dʰeh₁-
4. Proto-Indo-European*h₁weydʰh₁-
5. Proto-Indo-European*(h₁)wéydʰ(h₁)us
6. Proto-Germanic*widuz
7. Proto-West Germanic*widu
8. Old Englishwidu
9. Old Englishwudu
10. Middle Englishwode
11. Englishwood
12. Proto-Germanic*pikkōną
13. Proto-West Germanic*pikkōn
14. Old English*piccian
15. Middle Englishpiken
16. Middle Englishpekken
17. Middle Englishpekker
18. Englishpecker
19. Englishwoodpecker

From wood + pecker. Compare Middle English wod spek (“woodpecker”), Middle English wodehake (“woodpecker”), Middle English wodewale (“woodpecker”). Displaced speight.