yardfowl

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See also: yard fowl, and yard-fowl

English

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WOTD – 3 August 2020

Etymology

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Yardfowl (sense 1) – chickens raised in a yard

From yard +‎ fowl. Sense 2 (“political sycophant”) may allude to the tendency of chickens to gather around a person who is feeding them.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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yardfowl (plural yardfowl or yardfowls)

  1. A chicken raised in a yard.
    • 1744 July, William Ellis, “Of French or Buck Wheat”, in The Modern Husbandman, or The Practice of Farming, volume III, London: Printed for, and sold by, T[homas] Osborne, […], and M. Cooper, […], →OCLC, page 54:
      It alſo feeds Pheaſants, Partridges, Pidgeons, Yard-Fowls, &c., very expeditiously.
    • 1823, [Joseph-Philippe-François] Deleuze, “§ V. Collection of Birds.”, in History and Description of the Royal Museum of Natural History, […] Translated from the French […], Paris: Printed for A. Royer, […], by L[ouis-]T[oussaint] Cellot, […], →OCLC, pages 365–366:
      On the third and fourth shelves are the different races of domestic fowls, and near them several wild species from India and the Moluccas. It cannot yet be decided from which of them our common yard fowls have sprung.
    • 1944, Peter De Vries, Angels Can’t Do Better, New York, N.Y.: Coward-McCann, →OCLC, page 177:
      What ravishments, inaccessible to us, may not be written there, where the awakened yardfowl carves her fluid sport, to remotest whispers of the eagle's flight.
    • 1983, Jessica Amanda Salmonson, editor, Tales by Moonlight, New York, N.Y.: Tor Books, →ISBN, page 83:
      By then Torin had used Brinda's pebbles to buy wine, bread, and a little yardfowl meat, so he had to give her their worth in other toys.
    • 1995 July, Pat Conroy, chapter 27, in Beach Music, New York, N.Y.: Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, →ISBN; trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Dial Press, 2009, →ISBN, page 421:
      Then he dragged her and kicked her naked out into the yard before the eyes of the yard fowl and mule and two stricken, terrified children.
    • 1996, Marc Sebanc, Flight to Hollow Mountain, Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 57:
      Oh, how pleased will Cromus be to read the boy's intestinal fortitude – a deal more accurate than the innards of yardfowl, he claims; they're sure to unblock those dream paths, as he calls them, [...]
    • [2002, David Omowale, A Season of Waiting, Nairobi, Kenya: East African Educational Publishers, →ISBN, page 11:
      Our mother kept a dozen chickens, two turkeys, a few ducks and a guinea fowl. They were our ‘yard fowls’. She had caused our father to build coops of wood, board and wire-netting for them. We kept the yard fowls cooped up during the planting season each year so they wouldn’t pick the leaves off the young corn.
      Used to refer to domestic birds other than chickens.]
    • 2007 December 7, Eutille E. Duncan, chapter 1, in In a Fine Castle, Bloomington, Ind., Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire: AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 5:
      [D]ozens of persons were awaiting the boat in order to load huge hands of ‘green fig’, plantains and mafoubay, baskets of blue dasheen, ‘renter’ yam, yellow yam, cassava and sweet potatoes, parcels of finely ground farine, bags of wet sugar, cages of ‘yard fowl’, tightly tethered hogs, sheep and goats which would be taken to Trinidad to be bought by the Marketing Board and private traders that would be waiting at the docks in Port-of-Spain.
  2. (Barbados, politics) A political sycophant.
    • 1980 November 10, Maurice Bishop, quotee, “Adams’ election call angers Bishop”, in The Daily Gleaner, Kingston, Jamaica: Gleaner Company, →OCLC, page 5; quoted in Tony Thorndike, “The Political Economy of Independence of the Former Associated States of the Commonwealth Caribbean”, in Paul Sutton, editor, Dual Legacies in the Contemporary Caribbean: Continuing Aspects of British and French Domination (Legacies of West Indian Slavery), London: Frank Cass & Co., 2005, →ISBN, page 153:
      Like an expectant dog barking for his supper, he [Barbados Prime Minister Tom Adams] rushes in to please his new master [Ronald] Reagan like all good yardfowls by attacking Grenada.
    • 1985, Graham Walker, editor, The World Today, London: Royal Institute of International Affairs; Oxford University Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 107, column 1:
      All Caribbean politicians have a network of supporters and informants, popularly known as ‘yard-fowls’. The VSN [Volontaires de la Sécurité Nationale, or Tonton Macoute] were the yard-fowl armed.
    • [1986, Sanka Price, Jr., editor, Politics Barbados: The Guide to the General Election, 1986, Bridgetown, Barbados: Barbados Labour Party, →OCLC, page 84:
      The peculiar term "Yardfowl" has been with us for nearly 40 years. Its humble beginnings to present day, this apparently indigenous adjective has gone through its own socioeconomic changes. [...] Meant to convey a derogatory, pejorative connotation, "Yardfowl" was given immortality by our Calypso King the Mighty Gabby, when he produced a musical tribute, some years ago highlighting this unique Barbadian expression.]
    • 2009, Ronald A. Williams, chapter 6, in Four Saints and an Angel, Pittsburgh, Pa.: Dorrance Publishing Company, →ISBN, pages 40–41:
      A yardfowl, according to Marjorie's St. Euribian dictionary of standard dialect, is anybody who t'ink dat being able to call de prime minister by he first name is a paycheck. In other words, a total jackass.
    • 2015 May 2, “Editorial: ‘Yardfowl’ here to stay”, in The Daily Nation‎[1], Bridgetown, Barbados: Nation Pub. Co., →OCLC, archived from the original on 18 March 2020:
      The loathsome use of "yardfowl" has really never been meant to describe the average member of any political party in Barbados. [...] So "yardfowls" are generally not the people who will attend the party caucuses or the constituency meetings to ask questions and seek answers. Instead, you would expect those so designated, even by leading members of the political parties, to be the leading hecklers of opponents and to be mindlessly singing the praises of those whom they favour. Their refrain: "Talk yuh talk, I wid you all the way." They represent a unique vociferous brand.
    • 2017 November 3, “The 1929 Anti-Corruption Act”, in Barbados Today‎[2], archived from the original on 18 March 2020:
      I was completely paralyzed by the wealth of idiocy on display this week and the complete intellectual impoverishment taking place in this country. Sadly, there is only one article per week and not every yardfowl is worthy of a decent or printable response.

Alternative forms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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Anagrams

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