U.S. [a. Sp. chaparral, f. chaparra, -arro evergreen oak + -al a common ending for a grove, plantation, or collection of trees, as in almendral, cafetal, etc.)
properly, A thicket of low evergreen oaks; hence gen. Dense tangled brushwood, composed of low thorny shrubs, brambles, briars, etc., such as abounds on poor soil in Mexico and Texas. (The word came into use in U.S. during the Mexican War, c. 1846.)
1845. Daily Picayune, 27 Dec., 2/1. The sides and tops [of the tents] had been covered with chaparral, a species of thorny bush very common in Western Texas and Mexico.
1850. B. Taylor, Eldorado, I. x. 94. The road passed between low hills, covered with patches of chapparal, the usual haunt of grizzly bears.
1860. Bartlett, Dict. Amer., s.v., This word, chapparal, has been introduced into the language since our acquisition of Texas and New Mexico, where these bushes abound.
1872. C. King, Mountain. Sierra Nev., 47. We descended the long slope, through chaparral and forest.
1883. Stevenson, Silverado Sq., 249.
b. Chaparral Cock, a species of cuckoo (Geococcyx californianus) in the west of North America.
1882. A. E. Sweet, Sketches fr. ‘Texas Siftings,’ 177. The American name chapparel cock is evidently the Mexican name caporal Americanized.
1885. J. R. Coryell, in Harper’s Mag., Feb., 423/1. This bird is … known under several names, such as road-runner, chaparral cock, and paisano.
