whaup

[hwahp, hwawp, wahp, wawp]

noun

Scot.

1. a curlew, Numenius arquata.

whaup

/ hwɔːp, wɔːp /

noun

1. a popular name for the curlew

Word History and Origins

Origin of whaup¹

1505–15; perhaps representing earlier *whalp, akin (by gradation) to Old English hwilpe plover

Word History and Origins

Origin of whaup¹

C16: related to Old English huilpe, ultimately imitative of the bird's cry; compare Low German regenwilp sandpiper

Example Sentences

In Yorkshire it is more numerous, and thence to the extreme north of Scotland, as well as throughout Ireland, it is, under the name of whaup, familiar to those who have occasion to traverse the wild and desolate tracts that best suit its habits.

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“Well, there are five eggs in a laverock’s among the corn, and I know where there is a ptarmigan’s and a whaup’s, far away up among the mountains.”

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Archie put four fingers in his mouth and emitted a scream as shrill as the scream of the great whaup.

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Never a picture adorned the room, but dried grasses and ferns did duty instead, and here were the skins of every kind of wild animal and bird to be found in the wilds of the Scottish Highlands, the foumart or polecat, the whitterit or weasel, the wild cat and fox, ptarmigan, plovers of every kind, including the great whaup or curlew, hawks, owls, and even the golden-headed eagle itself stood stuffed in a corner, with glaring fiery eyes and wings half outspread.

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We see one wriggling snake, and a lizard on a heather stem, and we hear at a distance the melancholy scream of the mountain whaup or curlew,—a prolonged series of shrill whistling sounds, ending in a broken shriek—but there are no other signs of life visible or audible.

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