drongo

¹ American  

[drong-goh] / ˈdrɒŋ goʊ /

noun

plural

drongos

1. any passerine bird of the family Dicruridae, of Africa, Asia, and Australia, the several species usually having black plumage and long, forked tails.

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drongo ² American  

[drong-goh] / ˈdrɒŋ goʊ /

noun

Australian Slang.

plural

drongos

1. a stupid or slow-witted person; simpleton.

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drongo British  

/ ˈdrɒŋɡəʊ /

noun

1. Also called: drongo shrike.  any insectivorous songbird of the family Dicruridae, of the Old World tropics, having a glossy black plumage, a forked tail, and a stout bill

2. slang a slow-witted person

3. informal a new recruit in the Royal Australian Air Force

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Etymology

Origin of drongo¹

Borrowed into English from Malagasy around 1835–45

Origin of drongo²

1920–25; probably to be identified with drongo ¹, as a name for the Australian bird Dicrurus bracteata; though often popularly alleged to have originated from the name of an unsuccessful racehorse of the 1920s

Example Sentences

All in all this is a pretty feeble book, and its author is a bit of a drongo.

From The Guardian • Jul. 10, 2013

We caught curl-crested manucode, hooded butcherbirds, helmeted friarbirds, spangled drongo, and several other species we hadn’t seen since working on the mainland or the D’Entrecasteaux Islands.

From New York Times • Nov. 9, 2011

How about the racquet-tailed drongo, and the mudskipper, a hippopotamus-shaped fish that likes to skitter across mud flats and climb mangrove roots?

From Time Magazine Archive

Raw prawn, to come the, v.: to delude or hoodwink a drongo or galah.

From Time Magazine Archive

The bibacious drongo can be as demure as any.

From Confessions of a Beachcomber by Banfield, E. J. (Edmund James)