Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A bird of the family Musophagidæ, a plantain-cutter or touracou. See
touracou .
Etymologies
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Examples
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An interesting account has lately been given by Professor Church of a new animal pigment, containing copper, found in the feathers of the violet plantain-eater and two species of Turacus, natives respectively of the Gold Coast, the Cape, and Natal.
Field's Chromatography or Treatise on Colours and Pigments as Used by Artists George Field
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In the class of birds, a great number of new or rare species, and among those remarkable either for size or beauty, are the golden vulture, the great American eagle, the Impey peacock, the Ju [< blot >] pheasant or argus, the plantain-eater, &c.
Paris as It Was and as It Is Francis W. Blagdon 1798
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"Beautifully coloured are the green touraco and the purple plantain-eater, a rascally bird! who eats some of our finest plantains, and has bitten holes in many a one I thought to get entirely to myself.
chained_bear commented on the word plantain-eater
"He was reflecting upon the delightful possibilities—the West African eagle-owl, the blue plantain-eater, the many brilliant weavers and sun-birds, conceivably even the potto, when he heard the cry 'All hands to weigh anchor'..."
--P. O'Brian, The Commodore, 209
March 18, 2008