nickerpecker
A British dialectal term for the woodpecker, found in regional English dialects.
Definitions
A British dialectal term for the woodpecker, found in regional English dialects. The name is presumably onomatopoeic or descriptive — 'nicker' may imitate a pecking or tapping sound, and 'pecker' directly describes the bird's characteristic behavior of pecking at wood. British English has numerous regional folk names for the woodpecker (including 'yaffle,' 'green woodpecker,' 'hickwall'), and 'nickerpecker' is one of the more obscure variants, likely confined to a specific geographic area. Primarily of dialectological interest.
The old gamekeeper called it a nickerpecker — a name none of the visiting birdwatchers had ever heard before.
Comments
(UK, dialect) A woodpecker .
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UK and Irish slang — Cockney, Scouse, Geordie, Yorkshire, Glaswegian, Brummie, Welsh, West Country, plus Irish English. Centuries of regional dialects feeding into modern British and Irish street talk.
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