woodspite Now dial.
(ˈwʊdspaɪt)
Also 6 -specht, 7 -speight, -spight.
[f. wood n.1 + speight.]
A woodpecker; esp. the Green Woodpecker, Gecinus viridis.
| 1555 Gesner Hist. Anim. iii. Avium 680 Primum pici genus Angli spechtam & wodspechtam..nominant. 1601 Holland Pliny xxvii. x. II. 282 The roots must bee digged up in the night season, for feare that the Wood-speight or Hickway should see them: for in the day time the said bird would flie in their faces that carie it away, and be ready to job out their eyes. 1606 N. B[axter] Sydney's Ourania H 2, The coloured Woodspite runs along the trees. 1618 Reyce Brev. Suffolk (1902) 45 Others, whose notes I cannott commend.., as the Cookcow, the Jay, the wood spight, the owle. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. V. 249 The Green Wood⁓spite or Wood-pecker is called the Rain-Fowl in some parts of the country. 1885 Swainson Prov. Names Birds 99 Green Woodpecker... Wood spite (Norfolk). Wood spack (Norfolk; Suffolk). |