morepork

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English

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WOTD – 6 February 2020

Etymology

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A morepork in the Kiwi Birdlife Park in Queenstown, Otago, New Zealand

The word is imitative of the bird's call.[1]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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morepork (plural moreporks)

  1. (chiefly New Zealand) The Tasmanian spotted owl (Ninox novaeseelandiae), a small brown owl indigenous to New Zealand and Tasmania. [from 19th c.]
    Synonyms: (Australia) mopoke, (New Zealand) ruru
    • 1843, James Backhouse, chapter XVIII, in A Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies, London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co. […]; York, Yorkshire: John L. Linney, […], →OCLC, page 213:
      [T]he eye of the Morepork or Greater Night Jarr,[sic] which I lately had the opportunity of examining, is wonderfully adapted for enabling it to see the insects in the dark, on which it feeds.
    • 1871 May, T[homas] H[enry] Potts, “Art. XI.—On the Birds of New Zealand. [...] (Part II.)”, in James Hector, editor, Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute, 1870, volume III, Wellington: James Hughes, printer, […]; London: Trübner 7 Co., […], →OCLC, page 61:
      Although the living figure of our owl may be unknown to most persons, from the nature of its habits, yet few, perhaps very few, of the older settlers are unacquainted with the human-like cry of the More-pork.
    • 1876, Richard Rowe, “The Bunyip”, in A Child’s Corner Book: Stories for Boys and Girls, London, Edinburgh: William P. Nimmo. […], →OCLC, page 182:
      [I]t was better fun wandering about with the old man at night than moping in my hut, listening to the morepoke.
    • 1909, F[rederick] W[ollaston] Hutton, James Drummond, “[Aves.] The Morepork.—Kuru or Koukou. Ninox novae-zealandiae.”, in The Animals of New Zealand: An Account of the Dominion’s Air-breathing Vertebrates, 3rd revised and enlarged edition, Christchurch, Wellington, Dunedin: Whitcombe and Tombs, →OCLC, page 170:
      When Heke and Kawiti were making an attack on the Europeans in the Bay of Islands, the native parties, in taking up their positions before daybreak, communicated their movements to one another by imitating the cry of the morepork, which the sentries were accustomed to hear, and of which they therefore took no notice.
    • 1993 September, T[revor] H[enry] Worthy, R. N. Holdaway, “Quaternary Fossil Faunas from Caves in the Punakaiki Area, West Coast, South Island, New Zealand”, in Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, volume 23, number 3, Wellington: SIR Publishing, Royal Society of New Zealand, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 216:
      Moreporks and laughing owls were both recorded from the Punakaiki karst in small numbers, although the presence of laughing owls was inferred only from prey remains. [...] Because moreporks were extremely rare in fossil deposits, Millener (1991) suggested that they were recent colonists. In Punakaiki, one of the morepork records is of bones beneath an entrance tomo.
    • 2000, L. C. Woods, “Growing Up”, in Against the Tide: An Autobiographical Account of a Professional Outsider, Bristol, Philadelpha, Pa.: Institute of Physics Publishing, →ISBN, page 1:
      I remember that at night there was usually a morepork in the tree, whose eerie calls scared me as I lay still in bed, with firmly closed eyes, waiting for a possible attack.
    • 2002, Philip Gibbons, David Lindenmayer, “The Role of Nest Boxes in Research and Management”, in Tree Hollows and Wildlife Conservation in Australia, Collingwood, Vic.: CSIRO Publishing, published 2003, →ISBN, page 146:
      [T]wo New Zealand Moreporks (Ninox novaeseelandiae) were introduced to Norfolk Island in 1987, where only one individual of the closely related Norfolk Island Boobook (Ninox novaeseelandiae undulata) survived [...]. Nest boxes were erected across the island to supplement the dearth of natural hollows. By early 1995, the population had risen to 11 birds [...].
    • 2008, David Stirling, “Belly Up in the Kauri Trees”, in Birds, Beasts and a Bike under the Southern Cross, Victoria, B.C.: Agio Publishing House, →ISBN, page 14:
      I heard the harsh rasping of a weta, a mega-cricket. Then a pair of Morepork owls began a duet. Few birds are as aptly named as the Morepork. From dusk to sun-up and from forest to suburban garden, this medium-sized owl emphatically calls for "more pork."
    • 2012, Robert Taylor, “Predators”, in Driftwood: Another Voice, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 47:
      Moreporks’ inquisitive, searching eyes, / scan the hiding places, search the ground, / it stares ’round … from flattened rounded face.
    • 2016, Brigid Lowry, “My Inky Life: Thoughts about Writing Memoir”, in Still Life with Teapot: On Zen, Writing and Creativity, North Fremantle, W.A.: Fremantle Press, →ISBN:
      We were a family of odd bods and every summer we spent by the river. At night the morepokes called again and again.
  2. (Australia, New Zealand, colloquial, derogatory) Used as a mild term of abuse.
    1. A foolish person; also, a person who is wearisome.
      • 1985 July 16, Ken Shirley, “Appropriation Bill (No. 2)—Financial Statement: Second Reading”, in Parliamentary Debates (Hansard): First Session, Forty-first Parliament (House of Representatives), volume 464, Wellington: V. R. Ward, government printer, →OCLC, page 5636:
        It is interesting that the Opposition morepork is starting to chirp. [...] We have all heard about the "gang of four and a half"—the morepork brigade.
    2. A person who is lazy or slow; a slowcoach, a slowpoke.
      Synonyms: see Thesaurus:idler

Alternative forms

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Hypernyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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Interjection

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morepork

  1. The call of a morepork.
    • 1852 December 1, William Howitt, “Letter VII”, in Land, Labour, and Gold; or, Two Years in Victoria: With Visits to Sydney and Van Diemen’s Land. [...] In Two Volumes, volume I, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, published 1855, →OCLC, pages 115–116:
      [T]he morepork, a species of caprimulgus, or goatsucker,[sic] keeps up all night the exact repetition of its own name, "Morepork! morepork!" It is a sound to me most expressive of a dreary loneliness and twilight distance that I ever heard.
    • 1861, [Horace William Wheelwright], “A Chapter on the Ornithology of Port Phillip”, in Bush Wanderings of a Naturalist; or, Notes on the Field Sports and Fauna of Australia Felix. By an Old Bushman, London, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, Warne, & Routledge, […], →OCLC, page 126:
      As soon as the shades of evening close in over the Australian forest, the ear is startled by the cry of "morepoke," clearly and loudly repeated, and a bird as large as an owl flits by on noiseless wing, like the goat-sucker at home. This is the Morepoke, a species of large night-jar,[sic] all head and mouth, about the size of an owl.
    • 1871 May, T[homas] H[enry] Potts, “Art. XI.—On the Birds of New Zealand. [...] (Part II.)”, in James Hector, editor, Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute, 1870, volume III, Wellington: James Hughes, printer, […]; London: Trübner 7 Co., […], →OCLC, pages 61–62:
      As soon as night begins to spread its darkening shadows over our brief twilight, this active creature sets out on its hunting excursions, roaming over field and gully with soft, noiseless flight, one of the advantages it owes to its flocculent plumage; its cry of "morepork, morepork," is repeated at frequent intervals, sometimes with the utmost rapidity of utterance; [...]
    • 1992, Barbara Anderson, chapter 8, in Portrait of the Artist’s Wife, Wellington: Victoria University Press, published 2002, →ISBN, page 141:
      ‘I assure you. I do rather a good morepork.’ Bernard sat up, straightened his shoulders. ‘More pork. More pork.’
    • 2005, Jack Lasenby, “The Morepork’s Revenge, Mr Bryce’s Verandah Post, Why Freddy Jones Bit His Tongue, and the Way Fern Uncurls at the Top”, in Mr Bluenose, Dunedin: Longacre Press, →ISBN:
      I know where a morepork lives, in the roof of our dunny, and I hear it hoot ‘morepork, morepork’ every night. And I hoot ‘morepork’ back to it, and it hoots ‘morepork’ back to me.

Alternative forms

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References

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  1. ^ “morepork, n. and int.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2002; “morepork, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

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