Chrysti The Wordsmith: Bird Insults

Greetings This is Christie the wordsmith. Humans have long admired birds for their beauty and envied them for their freedom in flight. Paradoxically we've also included certain bird names in our arsenal of verbal insults for example Dodo is the common name of the now extinct bird of the Mauritius islands. Having no natural enemies the creature was both flightless and guileless and as such easily captured the notion of the bird as intellectually inferior is found in the expression dumb as a dodo which also implies that like the bird you're stupid enough to get yourself caught and killed. Popular perceptions of the turkey likewise have not been so favorable since it's often an easy target. The turkey is not considered cunning to call someone a turkey is to imply that he is bumbling or incompetent a failed flop theatrical performance is often branded a turkey. Though the parrot is both beautiful and intelligent it's name when applied to people is not complimentary. The parrot cannot understand

human language but it has the capacity to mimic the sounds of words so to parrot someone is to merely memorize and repeat words and phrases mechanically from the 14th through the 18th centuries. Parrots were called Pop and jays and this term appears in both Chaucer's and Shakespeare's works as a contemptuous nickname for a vain person who repeats words without comprehending their meaning. I'm Christi the wordsmith. Good day verb of course Kristie the wordsmith is sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Zoot enterprises. A high tech firm in Bozeman Montana offering challenging careers and innovative solutions for the financial services industry sued web dotcom.