pheasant

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English fesaunt, also fesaund and feisant,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman fesaunt and Old French faisant, faisan,^[4][5][6][7] perhaps through Old Occitan faisan,^[4][8] from Latin phāsiānus,^{[4][5][9][10]} which is from Ancient Greek φασιανός (phasianós, “pheasant”), short for a phrase meaning "the Phasian bird".^[4][10][9] The Greek adjective comes from Φᾶσις (Phâsis), the river Phasis in Colchis (now the Rioni in Georgia), from where the bird was said to have spread west.^{[4][6][10][11]} The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from the third quarter of the 12th century, for the bird, its likeness and the dish.^[12] The “-t” at the end is excrescent: the OED takes it as an Old French remodelling after words in “-ant”, as in tyrant,^[4] and Klein and Etymonline as a confusion with words in “-ant” and “-ent” such as ancient.^[10][5] The spelling with “ph-” was restored after the Latin in the late 14th century, first in Gower.^[5][3][6] The Latin word is also the source of Spanish faisán, Italian fagiano, German Fasan, Dutch fazant and Swedish fasan.^[4][5] The Latin bird name was already used in Britain in 1059, in a Latin inventory of Waltham,^[4] and Faisant is recorded as an English surname from 1166.^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The game bird, in a Latin entry of about 1299 in the account rolls of Durham Abbey, where the English word appears as fesaund.^[4][2][3] Etymonline dates the word to about 1300.^[5]

Semantic evolution

From about 1330 the word also named the bird as food,^[4][2] and Chaucer and Gower both used it.^[13] The name was transferred to other birds: from 1625 it was used in North America for the ruffed grouse and other grouse,^[4][14] a use found chiefly in the Midland states and the southern Appalachians,^[14] and in Australia it named the lyrebird.^[15][4] In South Africa it is used of the francolins, probably under the influence of Afrikaans fisant.^[16] In Norfolk dialect a pheasant was the bearded titmouse.^[17] In slang the word was a term of abuse around 1600, and as early as the mid-16th century it could mean a promiscuous woman.^[18] Johnson (1755) called it "a kind of wild cock".^[19]

Timeline

• c. 1299 – the game bird, as fesaund.^[4][2][3]
• c. 1330 – the bird or its flesh as food.^[4][2]
• before 1393 – the spelling phesant, in Gower's Confessio Amantis.^[2][3]
• 1625 – in North America, a grouse or other bird resembling the pheasant.^[4][14]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any of several large, long-tailed game birds of the family Phasianidae, native to Asia, the males of which usually have brightly coloured plumage; especially the ring-necked pheasant.^{[20][21][9][4]}
2. The flesh of this bird, eaten as food: roast pheasant with bread sauce.^[4][2]
3. Any of various other birds resembling a pheasant, such as a partridge or quail.^[20][9]
4. (US and Canada) A grouse, especially the ruffed grouse.^[20][4][14]

Word family

• pheasant coucal
• golden pheasant
• ring-necked pheasant
• argus pheasant

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
13. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
14. ^ a b c d Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan Houston Hall (eds.) (1985–2002), Dictionary of American Regional English, vols I–IV, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
15. ^ Moore, Bruce, ed. (2004), The Australian Oxford Dictionary, 2nd ed., Melbourne: Oxford University Press
16. ^ A Dictionary of South African English on Historical Principles, Dictionary Unit for South African English, https://dsae.co.za
17. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
18. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
19. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
20. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
21. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster