dabchick
(ˈdæbtʃɪk)
Forms: α. 6 dapchicke, dopchicken, 6–7 dopchick(e; β. 7 dip-chicke, 9 dibchick; γ. 6 dobchickin, 7–8 dobchick; δ. 7–9 dab-chick, 8– dabchick.
[The early forms dap-, dop-chick, with the later dip-chick, and synonym dopper, appear to connect the first part of the word with the ablaut stem deup, dup-, dop- of dip, deep; but the forms in dob-, dab-, seem to be associated with some senses of dab v.]
The Little Grebe, Podiceps minor, a small water-bird, found in rivers and other fresh waters, and noted for its diving; in U.S. the name is applied to another species of Grebe, Podilymbus podiceps.
| α 1575 Turberv. Faulconrie 150 Small fowle, as the dap-chicke, or suche like. 1583 Golding Calvin on Deut. xc. 552 The Swanne the Cormorant the pellicane, the Dopchicken the storke. 1615 Chapman Odyss. xv. 636 She..Shot dead the woman, who into the pump Like to a dop-chick dived. 1732 Mortimer in Phil. Trans. XXXVII. 449 Podicipes minor rostro vario, The Pied Bill Dopchick. 1888 W. Somerset Word-bk., Dapchick. (Always.) |
| β 1602 Carew Cornwall 35 a, The Dip-chicke (so named of his diving and littlenesse). 1827 T. Attwood in C. M. Wakefield Life viii. (1885) 109, I am glad Bosco has got the dibchicks. |
| γ 15.. Parl. Byrdes 88 in Hazl. E.P.P. III. 171 The Cote, the Dobchick, and the water Hen. 1598 Florio, Piombrino..a bird called a kingsfisher. Some take it for a dobchickin. 1670 Narborough Jrnl. in Acc. Sev. Late Voy. i. (1694) 59 White-breasted Divers, and Dobchicks. 1678 Ray Willughby's Ornith. 340 The Didapper, or Dipper, or Dobchick, or small Doucker. 1766 Pennant Zool. (1768) II. 397. 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. I. 214 Dobchick. |
| δ 1610 [see c]. 1728 Pope Dunc. ii. 63 As when a dab-chick waddles thro' the copse, On feet and wings, and flies, and wades, and hops. 1789 G. White Selborne (1853) II. xli. 273 Dabchicks and coots fly erect. 1870 Thornbury Tour Eng. I. i. 7 Brentford again dived, to reappear suddenly, like a dab chick on the surface of history. |
b. dial. Applied to the Moor-hen or Water-hen.
| 1877 N.W. Linc. Gloss., Dab-chick, the water-hen. 1879 Shropsh. Word-bk., Dab-chick, the Water-hen. |
c. fig. Of a girl.
| 1610 B. Jonson Alch. iv. ii, 'Fore God, She is a delicate Dab-chick! I must have her. |
¶ Ash's explanation ‘A chicken newly hatched’ (to which the
Century Dictionary refers the
quot. from Pope in a δ) is merely an amusing blunder.