Green woodpecker - OE *speot, hicel/hicol

Place-names are the only record of *speot as a possible name for the green woodpecker. The suffix of Middle English wodspek presumably derives from Old English *speot, which name is at least supported by a record of Old Saxon ghronspeht. Hicel/hicol also only appears in place-names, and is presumably the root of hickwall, another name for the species first recorded in the late Middle Ages.

Hickleton (Yorks)

Spettisbury (Dor)

Spexhall (Suff)

Sources (see ‘About’ page for the full bibliography): Watt, Cambridge Dictionary; Ekwall, Concise Oxford Dictionary.