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Glite Dictionary
🦉 A New Zealand owl 🐦 A kookaburra
laughing jackass

laughing jackass

9.9
A large Australian kingfisher with a loud call that sounds like laughter
  • noun
  • Archaic
translation icon : kookaburra
  • The laughing jackass is famous for its distinctive call, which sounds like loud, raucous laughter.

Examples

  • We spotted a laughing jackass perched on a eucalyptus branch while hiking in Australia.

  • Early settlers often woke to the sound of the laughing jackass at dawn.

  • The laughing jackass is famous for its distinctive call.

  • I heard a laughing jackass while camping in Australia.

  • Early settlers often woke to the sound of the laughing jackass at dawn.

  • The laughing jackass is famous for its distinctive call, which sounds like loud, raucous laughter.

  • We spotted a laughing jackass perched on a eucalyptus branch while hiking in Australia.

Synonyms

kookaburra
vslaughing jackass
  • Australian
2 9.1

A large Australian bird that makes a loud laughing call

refers to one specific species rather than the whole group
Dacelo gigas
vslaughing jackass
  • Specialized
9.9

A large Australian bird that makes a loud, laughing call

is the common spoken name used for that same bird

Surface Forms

laughing jackass singular
laughing jackasses plural

Morphology

laughing + jackass

This is a lexicalized species name whose meaning (an Australian kingfisher noted for its loud, cackling call) cannot be predicted from 'laughing' (characterized by laughter) plus 'jackass' (donkey/insult). A B1 learner who knows the constituent words would not infer a bird species from those parts, so the expression is idiomatic and non-compositional.

Etymology

Laughing jackass is an old name for an Australian 'kingfisher' now called the kookaburra because its loud, laughing call sounded like human laughter or a donkey's bray to early settlers. They used laughing for the laugh sound and jackass (a donkey) for the bray, so the name remembers the bird's famous laugh-like call.