s. and s.w. dial. Also 7 yippingale, 9 yelpingal, yappingal(e. [f. various echoic syllables with termination modelled on nightingale.] The green woodpecker; = YAFFLE sb.1

1

1609.  C. Butler, Fem. Mon., vii. § 5. H 5 b. The woodpecker or yippingale.

2

1802.  [see YAFFLE sb.1].

3

1865.  Cornh. Mag., July, 35. Mr. Matthew Arnold has very justly praised Maurice de Guérin for speaking of the woodpecker’s laugh. But the West-country peasant ages ago called it the ‘yaffingale,’ that is, the laugh-singer.

4

1866.  Blackmore, Cradock Nowell i. The tap of the yallingale.

5

1871.  Tennyson, Last Tourn., 696. The garnet-headed yaffingale.

6

1888.  Berksh. Gloss., Yelpingal, the woodpecker.

7

1906.  G. A. B. Dewar, Faery Year, 198. The statement of the gamekeeper that he had seen a ‘black yappingal.’

8