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Popinjay

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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• Popinjay
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1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
• Popinjay

(0. Fr. papegai, or popingay, onomatopoeic, original), an old name for a parrot. Except in its transferred sense of a dressed-up, vain or conceited, empty-headed person, the word is now only used historically of a representation or image of a parrot swinging from a high pole and used as a mark for archery or shooting matches. This shooting at the popinjay (see Archery) was formerly a favourite sport. "Popinjay" is still the proper heraldic term for a parrot as a bearing or charge.