cuckoo

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   Any of various birds, of the family Cuculidae within the order Cuculiformes, famous for laying its eggs in the nests of other species; but especially a common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus), that has a characteristic two-note call.

   He knows me, as the blind man knows the cuckoo, / By the bad voice.

2. 2
   verb

   To make the call of a cuckoo.

   Switzerland is the home of many musical toys and here were carved whistles in the shapes of birds. These cuckooed realistically when blown into, with the beak opening and shutting, and the tail moving up and down to produce the 'cuck' and the 'oooh'.

3. 3
   verb

   To take over the home of a vulnerable person for the purposes of carrying out organized crime in a concealed way.

   She'll have been cuckooed. That'll be the Knezevics. They can't launder fast enough, so what do you do with it? Where do you put it? You hide it in somebody else's place; somebody who han't got a clue what's going on and couldn't do a fat lot about it if they did.

4. 4
   adj

   Crazy; not sane.

   I think I'm going cuckoo!

Simplified etymology

Cuckoo has been used since Middle English, and its name imitates the bird’s distinctive call. Its senses for a foolish or mad person probably arose from the call’s monotonous repetition. Cuckold and the shortened form kook are related developments.

From Middle English cokkou, kokkow, cukkuk, gokkouȝ, probably from Old French cocu, coquu, cucu (whence French coucou); ultimately onomatopoeic of the song of the male Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus), perhaps via Latin cucūlus (“cuckoo”). Compare dialectal English gowkoo (“cuckoo”). Displaced Middle English gnokken (“cuckoo”) and native Middle English yeke, ȝek (from Old English ġēac (“cuckoo”)), see English gowk. The UK sense is by analogy from the bird's practice of brood parasitism.

Topics

External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary