killdeer means A North American plover (Charadrius vociferus) with a distinctive cry and territorial behavior that includes feigning injury to attract predators and spare the young in the nest. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 86 out of 100.
killdeer is pronounced /ˈkɪldɪɹ/.
Why “killdeer” is a great word
KILLDEER — [Noun] A North American plover (Charadrius vociferus) distinguished by its piercing two-syllable call and a dramatic broken-wing display to lure threats from its ground nest. The name is imitative of the bird's characteristic "kill-deer" call; first attested in American English in 1731. Unlike "plover" (which names a broad family of wading birds) or "sandpiper" (which describes more slender, probing shorebirds), the killdeer is defined by its vocal insistence and its theatrical deceit. It is the sharp, flinty alarm that cuts across a fallow field; the frantic, tumbling dance of a parent over gravel; and the warmth of four speckled eggs cradled in a shallow scrape of earth—a performance of brokenness that is the very mechanism of its preservation.
Etymology
Imitative of the bird's call.
noun
- A North American plover (Charadrius vociferus) with a distinctive cry and territorial behavior that includes feigning injury to attract predators and spare the young in the nest.“A kill-deer, flying so low as to dip its wings, ever and anon alighted on the margin, its stilt-like legs half submerged as it ran hither and thither, now and then bending to dig in the sand with its long slender bill.”