Made in Arabic
popinjay
الببغاء
A brass parrot made to crown a pole, from northern India under the Mughals, where the parrot was a favourite bird of court life, painting and story. Arabic babbaghāʾ travelled to Europe with the bird itself: Old Provençal papagai, Old French papegai, and English popinjay, for centuries the English name of the parrot.
- Instrument
- a brass finial in the form of a parrot, northern India, 17th–18th century
The path between languagesbabbaġāʾ → papagai → papegai → popinjay
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, ملكٌ عامّ
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