Also 8 whipper-, 9 wipper-, -vill, whippo-. [Echoic, from the bird’s note.] Popular name in U.S. and Canada for a species of Goatsucker, Antrostomus (Caprimulgus) vociferus.
1732. Pennsylv. Gaz., 10 July, 1/1.
| No noxious snake disperses poison here, | |
| Nor screams of night-bird rend the twilight air, | |
| Excepting him, who when the groves are still, | |
| Hums am’rous tunes, and whistles whip poor will. |
1747. G. Edwards, Nat. Hist. Birds, II. 63. The Whip-Poor-Will, or lesser Goat Sucker…. It is called in Virginia, Whip-Poor-Will, from its Cry.
1778. J. Carver, Trav. N. Amer., xviii. 468. The Whipperwill, or as it is termed by the Indians, the Muckawiss … acquires its name by the noise it makes.
1809. W. Irving, Knickerb., VI. iv. (1861), 198. The melancholy plaint of the Whip-poor-will, who, perched on some lone tree, wearied the ear of night with his incessant moanings.
1822. J. Woods, Two Years’ Resid. Illinois, 197. Wipperwill, or whip-poor-will, or wippervill,—a brown bird that is named from the cry it makes, of ‘whip-poor-will’; it is generally heard of an evening in spring and summer.
1884. ‘Mark Twain,’ Huck. Finn, i. I heard … a Whippowill and a dog crying about somebody that was going to die.
