Pavonicide
In the short story Reginald on House Parties, by Saki (H.H.
Munro), the character Reginald muses on the fact that hosts and hostesses
usually know their houseguests only in the most superficial way. He has been
invited to a shooting party. After missing his turn at shooting a partridge
from about five yards away, he is teased mercilessly that night by his fellow
guests.
The next morning, he
rises at dawn and goes out hunting alone: “I hunted up the most conspicuous
thing in the bird line that I could find, and measured the distance, as nearly
as it would let me, and shot away all I know.” He ends up killing the estate’s
pet peacock.
“They said afterwards
that it was a tame bird; that’s simply SILLY, because it was awful wild at the
first few shots.” He notes that the hostess stared him down as he left. His
comment is, “Some hostesses, of course will forgive anything, even unto
pavonicide (is there such a word?), as long as one is nice-looking and
sufficiently unusual to counterbalance some of the others . . . .”
Pavonicide means the
killing of peacocks. It is based on the Latin word pavo, a peacock. A more common term is pavonine, resembling a
peacock. Obsolete adjectives include pavonaceous, pavonated, pavonian, and
panovious.
So know your bird before
you pull the trigger.
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