peacock: [14] The original English name of the ‘peacock’ in the Anglo-Saxon period was pēa. This was borrowed from Latin pāvō, a word which appears to have been related to Greek taós ‘peacock’, and which also gave French paon, Italian pavone, and Spanish pavo ‘peacock’. The Old English word is presumed to have survived into Middle English, as *pe, although no record of it survives, and in the 14th century it was formed into the compounds peacock and peahen to distinguish the sexes. The non-sex-specific peafowl is a 19th-century coinage.
peacock (n.)
c. 1300, poucock, from Middle English po "peacock" + coc (see cock (n.)).
Po is from Old English pawa "peafowl" (cock or hen), from Latin pavo (genitive pavonis), which, with Greek taos said to be ultimately from Tamil tokei (but perhaps is imitative; Latin represented the peacock's sound as paupulo).
The Latin word also is the source of Old High German pfawo, German Pfau, Dutch pauw, Old Church Slavonic pavu. Used as the type of a vainglorious person from late 14c. Its flesh superstitiously was believed to be incorruptible (even St. Augustine credits this). "When he sees his feet, he screams wildly, thinking that they are not in keeping with the rest of his body." [Epiphanus]
中文解释
1. 浑身长满豌豆的公鸡, 因为孔雀的羽毛上布满了很多很像豌豆一样的图案。
实用例句
1. He was a born peacock.
他天生爱慕虚荣。
来自柯林斯例句
2. as proud as a peacock
孔雀般的骄傲
来自《权威词典》
3. The peacock spreads his splendid tail.
孔雀展开了它那灿烂夺目的尾巴.
来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
4. She is as proud as a peacock.
她十分骄傲.
来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
5. The peacock is displaying its fine tail feathers.