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POPINJAY (O. Fr. papegai, or popingay, onomatopoeic, original)
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POPINJAY (O. Fr. papegai, or popingay, onomatopoeic, original), an old name for a parrot. Except in its transferred sense of a dressed-up, vain or conceited, empty-headed person, the word is now only used historically of a representation or image of a parrot swinging from a high pole and used as a mark for archery or shooting matches. This shooting at the popinjay (see ARCHERY) was formerly a favourite sport. " Popinjay " is still the proper heraldic term for a parrot as a bearing or charge.