A to Z Challenge 2013

Monday, April 30, 2012

Y is for Yaffingale

The second to the last word in this A to Z series is Yaffingale, which means:

a green woodpecker

I had no idea there were green woodpeckers.  Maybe it's just me (or the fact that I grew up with a cartoon with a red woodpecker), but the whole oddity of this creature makes it a prime candidate for a sci-fi world.  Maybe you even make it really important that the woodpeckers are green, kind of as a way to pull the reader in.

Another thought I had while thinking about this word is pairing up this and Nightingale.  The names could be used for two opposite factions in a medieval setting.  Or maybe they use the birds as their means of sending messages.  Food for thought anyway.

What do you think of this word?  Any other ideas come to mind?

2 comments:

Rick Daley said...

I have a woodpecker that likes to bang at the metal cover on top of my chimney, usually around 7am on mornings when I get to sleep in. I don't know why it does it, it can't be getting a anything more than a headache. It's loud as hell, you can hear it throughout the house.

Eric said...

I know exactly what you're talking about. At our old house, we had a woodpecker that liked to do that. It's like a jackhammer going off, huh? And they don't leave no matter how many rocks you fling at them.