dotterel, dottrel
(ˈdɒtərəl, ˈdɒtrəl)
Forms: 5–6 dotrell(e, dottrelle, 6 dotterelle, 6–7 dot(e)rel, dot(t)erell, dottrell, 7 dottril(l, 7–9 dotteril(l, 8 dotrill, 6– dotterel, dottrel.
[f. dote v.1, the suffix appears to be the same as in cockerel, mongrel, pickerel, see -rel. It is not clear whether sense 1 or sense 2 is the original: sense 1 appears to be the more frequent, and in some cases at least sense 2 is evidently treated as transf. from it.]
1. A species of plover (Eudromias morinellus): so called from the apparent simplicity with which it allows itself to be approached and taken.
(Collective pl. dotterel: cf. snipe, etc.)
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 128/1 Dotrelle, byrde, fingus. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 65 b, This dotrell is a lytell fonde byrde, for it helpeth in maner to take it selfe. 1611 Drayton Panegyr. Verses in Coryat's Crudities, As men take Dottrels, so hast thou ta'n us. 1659 D. Pell Impr. Sea 243 The Dotteril, of whom they say, that whatsoever is done in the sight of her, shee will exactly imitate. 1766 Pennant Zool. (1768) II. 515 The Dottrel appears in spring and in autumn. 1849 C. Sturt Exped. Centr. Australia I. 311 We passed several flights of dotterel making to the south. 1865 Kingsley Herew. II. xi. 186 Laughing at the dottrel as they anticked on the mole hills. |
2. A silly person, one whose intellect is decayed, a dotard. Sometimes with fig. reference to 1. (Now only dial.)
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 128/1 Dotrelle..idem quod Dotarde. 1483 Cath. Angl. 104/2 A Dottrelle, desipa. 1547–64 Bauldwin Mor. Philos. (Palfr.) i. x, Thy words sauour of old idle dottrels tayles. 1583 Golding Calvin on Deut. lxxx. 489 Being a misbegotten generation, they take monkes and old dotterelles for their fathers. 1681 Otway Soldier's Fort. i. i. Wks. 1728 I. 344 A paralytick coughing decrepid Dotrel. 1828 Craven Dialect, Dotterill, an old doating fellow. |
b. attrib. or as adj. Foolish, stupid, doting.
| 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 360 b, This dottrell Ierarchy of Rome. 1607 T. Walkington Opt. Glass 83 Lest the toung of it [a buckle] catch their owne dottril skins. |
3. A doddered tree: so dotterel tree. Now dial.
| a 1568 R. Ascham Scholem. ii. (Arb.) 137 Som old dotterell trees. a 1618 Sylvester Elegy Sir W. Sidney 108 Doe not we take the timber for our turn, And leave the dotrells, in their time to burn? 1821 Clare Vill. Minstr. I. 52 When he..Has mixt with them [Shepherds] beneath a dotterel-tree. 1868 J. W. Burgon Provinc. Bedfordsh. in Bedf. Times (Mar.), Dottrel or Dottle-tree, a tree without a head, a pollard. Called a dodder tree in the north of the county. |
Hence ˈdotterelism.
| 1611 Cotgr., Niaiserie, simplicitie, sillinesse, childishnesse..dotterelisme. |