While ornithologists may disagree with me, there is nothing particularly notable about the pewit, also known as the Northern lapwing, the green plover, or as Vanellus vanellus, to have earned it to a spot on our blog. It's a lovely bird to be sure. While neither as fearsome as a raptor nor elegant as a heron, a pewit's would surely look at home on the crest of a noble Eurasian family, or on the shield of a Medieval knight.
V. vanellus is a migratory bird, its arrival in the low countries signaling the onset of spring. Its eggs, mottled and small, which it lays in open fields, have been considered a delicacy my the aristocracy of Europe. The birds defend their eggs bitterly, and are known to feign injury to lure would-be predators away from their nests.
The word "pewit" is personally significant not because of its definition, but because of its daffynition. Daffynitions are a simple sort of pun - a proposed definition of a word based on the words pronunciation rather than its actual definition. Coffee, for example, is the person on whom one coughs. A flatulence is an emergency vehicle that picks someone up who has been run over by a steamroller.
As for the pewit, a "pewit" is somebody who composes "pewitry". If you're reading this pewitry blog, I hazard to guess that you, yourself, might be a pewit.
Prompt:
Chances are, you've come up with daffynitions yourself, perhaps as a child, plucking a dandelion and thinking of large cats in waistcoats. Take some time for levity this week. Take some time for puns. Compose some daffynitions of your own, and if you come up with some good ones, share them with us here at Floodmark!
Banner image courtesy of Wikipedia
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