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…. It 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. 20. I heard … a whippowill and a dog crying about somebody that was going to die.
