![\"Pavo](\"http:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/images\/blog\/pavoreal.gif\")
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Last night I discovered the Spanish word pavo real<\/strong>, which means peacock, or literally ‘royal turkey’, and which conjured up an image of a turkey in ermine robes wearing a crown. <\/p>\n It also reminds me of the Mandarin Chinese word for swan, \u5929\u9d5d [\u5929\u9e45] (ti\u0101n’\u00e9), which could be translated as ‘heavenly\/celestial goose’. The Mandarin word for peacock is \u5b54\u96c0 (k\u01d2ngqu\u00e8) or ‘great sparrow’. [source<\/a>]<\/p>\n The word pavo<\/em> comes from the Latin p\u0101v\u014d<\/em> (peacock), from the Ancient Greek \u03c4\u03b1\u03ce\u03c2<\/em> (ta\u014ds), and thought to be ultimately from Tamil \u0ba4\u0bcb\u0b95\u0bc8<\/em> (t\u014dkai). <\/p>\n The words for peacock in many European languages come from the same root: Aromanian: p\u00e3un; Breton: paun; Catalan: pa\u00f3; Cornish: payon; Dutch: pauw; French: paon; Friulian: pavon; Galician: pavo, pav\u00f3n; German: Pfau; Italian: pavone; Occitan: pavon; Old English: p\u0101wa; Portuguese: pav\u00e3o; Romanian: p\u0103un; Romansch: pavun, pivun; Sardinian: paboni, paone; Serbian: paun; Welsh: paun [source<\/a>]. However in Manx a peacock is a kellagh aalin (‘beautiful cock(rel)’) or a kellagh eairkagh (‘peaked cock(rel)’) [source<\/a>].<\/p>\n Are there interesting words for peacocks, or other birds, in other languages?<\/p>\n The word pavo<\/em> has quite a few other meanings in Spanish, including:<\/p>\n – silly thing, idiot; five peseta coin; sucker (in Spain)
\n– stowaway (in Chile)
\n– large kite; big shot; evil-looking person (in the Andes)
\n– youngster, kid
\n– cold turkey
\n– silly – e.g. \u00a1no seas pavo! = don’t be silly!<\/p>\n