drongo1
[drong-goh]
- any passerine bird of the family Dicruridae, of Africa, Asia, and Australia, the several species usually having black plumage and long, forked tails.
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Origin of drongo1
Borrowed into English from Malagasy around 1835–45
drongo2
[drong-goh]
- a stupid or slow-witted person; simpleton.
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Origin of drongo2
1920–25; probably to be identified with drongo1, as a name for the Australian bird Dicrurus bracteata; though often popularly alleged to have originated from the name of an unsuccessful racehorse of the 1920s
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for drongo
Historical Examples
The drongo cuckoo is as like the king-crow as one pea is to another.
Birds of the PlainsDouglas Dewar
The drongo appears well adapted at Rota, where it prefers cultivated areas and the bombed village sites to thick woodlands.
The Avifauna of Micronesia, Volume 3Rollin H. Baker
The drongo builds earlier, for it is usually feeding its young while the oriole is incubating.
Birds of the PlainsDouglas Dewar
The drongo cuckoo (Surniculus lugubris) is a bird of which I know practically nothing.
Birds of the PlainsDouglas Dewar
My lack of knowledge of the habits of the drongo cuckoo is, however, not my chief reason for desiring to write about it.
Birds of the PlainsDouglas Dewar
drongo
- Also called: drongo shrike any insectivorous songbird of the family Dicruridae, of the Old World tropics, having a glossy black plumage, a forked tail, and a stout bill
- Australian and NZ slang a slow-witted person
- Australian informal a new recruit in the Royal Australian Air Force
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Word Origin
C19: from Malagasy
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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