yaffingale south. and s.w. dial.
(ˈjæfɪŋgeɪl)
Also 7 yippingale, 9 yelpingal, yappingal(e.
[f. various echoic syllables with termination modelled on nightingale.]
The green woodpecker; = yaffle n.1
| 1609 C. Butler Fem. Mon. vii. §5. H 5 b, The woodpecker or yippingale. 1802 [see yaffle n.1]. 1865 Cornh. Mag. July 35 Mr. Matthew Arnold has very justly praised Maurice de Guérin for speaking of the woodpecker's laugh. But the West-country peasant ages ago called it the ‘yaffingale’, that is, the laugh-singer. 1866 Blackmore Cradock Nowell i, The tap of the yaffingale. 1871 Tennyson Last Tourn. 696 The garnet-headed yaffingale. 1888 Berksh. Gloss., Yelpingal, the woodpecker. 1906 G. A. B. Dewar Faery Year 198 The statement of the gamekeeper that he had seen a ‘black yappingal’. |