muttonbirding means the seasonal harvesting of petrel chicks, especially shearwater species, for food, oil and feathers. It carries an Arena rating of 1276, earned across 5 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, muttonbirding ranks #355 of 17,149 for Most Exacting Words, #895 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words, #1,690 of 17,163 for Funniest Words, #2,514 of 17,140 for Most Whimsical Words.
Why “muttonbirding” is a great word
MUTTONBIRDING — [Noun] The seasonal harvesting of petrel chicks, especially shearwaters, for food, oil, and feathers. From mutton bird (a name for certain petrels, likened to mutton for their taste) + -ing (suffix forming nouns of action). Unlike “fowling” (a general term for hunting birds) or “whaling” (the pursuit of a different marine mammal), muttonbirding is a precise, culturally embedded ritual tied to ancestral timing. It is the guttural chorus from burrows at dusk, the weight of an oily chick in a woven basket, and the ancestral smoke curing the catch on racks—a harvest from the edge of the world, measured not in tons but in generations.
Etymology
From mutton bird + -ing.
noun
- The seasonal harvesting of petrel chicks, especially shearwater species, for food, oil and feathers.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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