bufflehead
Nov. 19th, 2014 08:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prettygoodwordbufflehead (BUF-uhl-hed) - n., a small North American diving duck (Bucephala albeola), the male having black-and-white plumage and a fluffy head.
Or rather, a large-for-body-size head which can be fluffed out to look even larger -- thus its name, where buffle is an obsolete dialect form of buffalo, in the generic sense of wild ox. A big lunk of a head, in other words -- and before being given to the duck, it was used as a synonym for a blockhead. One of the smallest of the ducks, for what it's worth.
---L.
Or rather, a large-for-body-size head which can be fluffed out to look even larger -- thus its name, where buffle is an obsolete dialect form of buffalo, in the generic sense of wild ox. A big lunk of a head, in other words -- and before being given to the duck, it was used as a synonym for a blockhead. One of the smallest of the ducks, for what it's worth.
---L.
