How did that get named?

[poledark]

Walking thro the woods today, I spotted a Peacock butterfly. Why Peacock? easy peasy, it's got two big eye markings on the wings.

 

Now it occurred to me that the person who named it, must have been familiar with peacocks before he/she first saw said specie of butterfly?

 

So what was it called by the yokels who had never seen a peacock?

 

Den

[five bellies]

Walking thro the woods today, I spotted a Peacock butterfly. Why Peacock? easy peasy, it's got two big eye markings on the wings.

 

Now it occurred to me that the person who named it, must have been familiar with peacocks before he/she first saw said specie of butterfly?

 

So what was it called by the yokels who had never seen a peacock?

 

Den

 

 

Crickey Den you must be bored

 

A lot of old English names for animals have been preceeded Yathel woodpecker,Brock badger,Flittermouse Bat but I Cat help you with this one.

[chesters1]

hmmmm spurred on by your question i peeked on the web ,i cant see a name yokels would have used as it seems the romans may have eaten peacocks so the name is very old ,in medieval times they were common .

a farmer used to call his sparrows mollyhead sparrows so no doupt a bit of research may come up with an answer to yours ,the molly head bit was i believe because of the dark bonnet bit on the sparrows head who molly was is probably lost?

[five bellies]

hmmmm spurred on by your question i peeked on the web ,i cant see a name yokels would have used as it seems the romans may have eaten peacocks so the name is very old ,in medieval times they were common .

a farmer used to call his sparrows mollyhead sparrows so no doupt a bit of research may come up with an answer to yours ,the molly head bit was i believe because of the dark bonnet bit on the sparrows head who molly was is probably lost?

 

 

Mollys always used to be Marys untill It became a trendy name in its own right The virgin Mary is often depicted as wearing a head scarf or shawl.

 

Maybe?

Edited April 13, 2008 by five bellies

[chesters1]

still nothing on Dens question ,you maybe right but strangely i cant find one molly head sparrow just a hen!

[poledark]

Interesting (?) local gypsy George calls sparrows "Mollies"..but I think he calls all little brown birds that

 

FB..me bored Just thought I may start another row (oops) , discussion

 

Den

[chesters1]

perhaps he worked for the farmer (in hawkinge)

although it was house sparrow shape it had a very dark head ,perhaps a colour variant its not a house sparrow colour but appeared (as he said) to have a mop cap ,we only seem to have two versions but i have noted that colouration also in the warren so perhaps a naughty french sparrow hopped across and gave some english fillies a seeing to in the past?

the ones around his barns all had the same head colouration and they were thick on the ground then ,i miss the cheep cheep they were very common in bromley as a kid but just common house ones not mop capped ,theres none around here.

the sound takes me back to south street dozing in a chair in the summer heat with just the sparrows cheeping AAAAHHHHH

Edited April 13, 2008 by chesters1

[five bellies]

Interesting (?) local gypsy George calls sparrows "Mollies"..but I think he calls all little brown birds that

 

FB..me bored Just thought I may start another row (oops) , discussion

 

Den

 

 

Den,

 

Not old George from the Sturry road permanant site by any chance ?

[poledark]

Not him FB, this one lives in a small encampment close by Loggies at Chartham..

 

Den

[Huge_Vitae]

Chesters is probably right, most things are down to the Romans.

 

On the Island we have three rivers, Medina, Yar and Yar!

 

The name Medina came from the Anglo-Saxon Meðune = "the middle one", As to the other two, it is widely thought/rumored that since Anglo~Saxon for 'River' was 'yar', that the Romans, as they went about drawing maps asked the local names of places and animals and wrote them in their own term. They obviously said to some local "what is this?" pointing at the water. The local obviously said "It's a river you daft Roman dork"...........