widgeon

American  

[wij-uhn] / ˈwɪdʒ ən /

Or wigeon

noun

widgeons plural

1. any of several common freshwater ducks related to the mallards and teals in the genus Anas, having metallic green flight feathers, a white wing patch, and a buff or white forehead, including A. penelope of Eurasia and North Africa, A. sibilatrix of South America, and the baldpate, A. americana, of North America.

2. Obsolete. a fool.

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widgeon British  

/ ˈwɪdʒən /

noun

1. a variant spelling of wigeon

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Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

noun

• widgeons
  plural
• widgeon
  plural

Etymology

Origin of widgeon

First recorded in 1505–15; perhaps from an Anglo-French correspondent of French vigeon, from Vulgar Latin; compare Medieval Latin vipiō “kind of crane” (derivative of vip- imitative of a bird's cry)

Example Sentences

Also spotted, but in fewer numbers, were snow geese, buffleheads, redheads, goldeneyes, American widgeon, ruddy, ring-necked, canvasbacks, scaup and wood ducks.

From Washington Times • Feb. 15, 2015

Geese, black ducks, mallard, teal and widgeon have darkened the skies over the bay and fattened themselves in its marshes.

From Time Magazine Archive

The bitterns boomed and the marsh harriers skimmed over the reeds and millions of widgeon and mallard and tufted ducks flew about m various wedges, looking like champagne bottles balanced on a nimbus of wings.

From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White

Two or three widgeon hung in one of them, and, far away to the eastward, a fly-like man was plodding over the slob in tiny persistence, to collect his bag.

From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White

The mallard and widgeon, coming in high with the gale behind, were gone before they had arrived.

From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White