drongo Ornith.
(ˈdrɒŋgəʊ)
[a. Malagasy drongo (Brisson Ornithol. 1760).]
1. A name originally belonging to a Madagascar bird, Dicrurus (Edolius) forficatus; thence extended to other species of Dicrurus, and in a wide sense to the numerous African and Indian species of Dicruridæ, also called drongo-shrikes. Also, an Australian bird, Dicrurus bracteata.
| 1841 Penny Cycl. XXI. 416 The Drongos..are fly-catching birds. Ibid., The Dicrurinæ or Drongo shrikes of Le Vaillant. 1894 Naturalist on Prowl 178 The ever-changing..notes of the Racket-tailed Drongo. 1895 Rep. 6th Meeting of Australasian Assoc. Adv. Sci. 448 There being but one member of the interesting Asiatic genus Drongos (Dicrurinæ) in Australia, it was thought best to characterise it simply as the Drongo without any qualifying term. 1908 E. J. Banfield Confessions of Beachcomber i. i. 18 Drongos chatter and scold the rest of the banqueters. Ibid. iii. 106 The drongo is a bird of many moods. 1965 Austral. Encycl. III. 288/2 The drongo is common in the north of Australia and New Guinea. |
2. drongo cuckoo, a species of the cuckoo genus Surniculus, a native of Nepaul.
3. A simpleton, a stupid person; see also quot. 1942. Hence as adj., silly, foolish. Austral. slang.
The statement in quot. 1966 is highly speculative.
| 1942 A. G. Mitchell in Southerly Apr., Drongo, an R.A.A.F. recruit. 1945 Baker Austral. Lang. vi. 130 Drongo and sonky, mean silly or foolish. Ibid. viii. 156 Drongo, second-rate, worthless. Ibid. 160 Drongo, a raw recruit. 1953 R. Braddon in I. Bevan Sunburnt Country 130 Drongo: No-hoper: Galah, all these are derogatory terms. They imply stupidity in the person at whom the word is flung. 1957 J. Cleary Green Helmet 19 You're just a bloody drongo who doesn't know any better. 1960 S. H. Courtier Gently dust Corpse xii. 177 Damn what you thought!.. I never realized you were such an unmitigated drongo. 1966 Baker Austral. Lang. (ed. 2) vi. 135 Its popular zoological name has only the remotest link with the use of drongo to denote a slow-witted or stupid person. That application seems to have come from the use of Drongo as the name of a horse..[which] won a certain claim to fame by consistently finishing last or near last. 1968 K. Weatherly Roo Shooter 130 If we don't get her some dingo will, or some drongo of a holiday-shooter will murder her. 1969 Advertiser (Adelaide) 12 May 5/4 You Aussie coves are just a bunch of drongoes. |