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Added 9 October 2026

cuckoo

/ˈkʊkuː/ noun

In Latin: cucūlus Wiktionary

noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about cuckoo at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

A man who is a stupid incompetent fool.
Any of numerous European and North American birds having pointed wings and a long tail.

verb

Repeat monotonously, like a cuckoo repeats his call.

Origin

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. The Malaysian and Singaporean sense is a calque of Hokkien 咕咕鳥 /咕咕鸟 (ku-kú-chiáu)

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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