drongo

¹ American  

[drong-goh] / ˈdrɒŋ goʊ /

noun

drongos plural

1. 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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drongo ² American  

[drong-goh] / ˈdrɒŋ goʊ /

noun

Australian Slang.

drongos plural

1. a stupid or slow-witted person; simpleton.

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drongo British  

/ ˈdrɒŋɡəʊ /

noun

1. 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

2. slang a slow-witted person

3. informal a new recruit in the Royal Australian Air Force

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• drongos
  plural

Etymology

Origin of drongo¹

Borrowed into English from Malagasy around 1835–45

Origin of drongo²

1920–25; probably to be identified with drongo ¹, 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

Example Sentences

All in all this is a pretty feeble book, and its author is a bit of a drongo.

From The Guardian • Jul. 10, 2013

We caught curl-crested manucode, hooded butcherbirds, helmeted friarbirds, spangled drongo, and several other species we hadn’t seen since working on the mainland or the D’Entrecasteaux Islands.

From New York Times • Nov. 9, 2011

Galah, n.: small pink-and-gray cockatoo, noted for its stupidity; hence, a drongo.

From Time Magazine Archive

Raw prawn, to come the, v.: to delude or hoodwink a drongo or galah.

From Time Magazine Archive

This drongo was seen in areas where the trees had been cut, sitting on limbs and darting out after insects.

From Birds from North Borneo University of Kansas Publications, Museum of Natural History, Volume 17, No. 8, pp. 377-433, October 27, 1966 by Thompson, Max C.