beccafico

American  

[bek-uh-fee-koh] / ˌbɛk əˈfi koʊ /

noun

1. a small songbird, especially the European garden warbler, Silvia hortensis, eaten as a delicacy in France and the Mediterranean region.

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beccafico British  

/ ˌbɛkəˈfiːkəʊ /

noun

1. any of various European songbirds, esp warblers of the genus Sylvia , eaten as a delicacy in Italy and other countries

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Etymology

Origin of beccafico

1620–25; < Italian: literally, figpecker < beccare “to peck” (< becco “beak” < Latin beccus ) + fico “fig” (< Latin ficus )

Example Sentences

Among small birds, beyond all doubt, the best is the "beccafico."

From The Physiology of Taste by Robinson, Fayette

Were the beccafico as large as a pheasant, an acre of land would be paid for it.

From The Physiology of Taste by Robinson, Fayette

She had just finished a beccafico, and seemed disposed for conversation.

From Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, First Series by Brown, Horatio Robert Forbes

He waits for a thrush, an ortolan, a beccafico, a robin-redbreast, or any other feathered and diminutive biped.

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 55, No. 340, February, 1844 by Various

I have considered the dormice served with honey and poppy-seed and the grape-fed beccafico dressed with garum piperatum, which, according to Petronius, were served at Trimalchio's banquet.

From The Orchard of Tears by Rohmer, Sax