partridge

name

1. A surname.

   “Mrs Partridge, upon this, immediately fell into a fury, and discharged the trencher on which she was eating, at the head of poor Jenny […]”

2. A minor city in Reno County, Kansas, United States, named after the bird.

noun

Etymology: From Middle English partrich, partriche, pertriche, perdriz, from Old French perdriz, partriz, from Latin perdīx (“partridge”), from Ancient Greek πέρδιξ (pérdix, “partridge”), probably from πέρδομαι (pérdomai, “to fart”).

1. Any bird of a number of genera in the family Phasianidae, notably in the genera Perdix and Alectoris.

   “On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to me a partridge in a pear tree.”

   “...and the loudest sound in the lonely fields was when, adventuring too near some late brood, the partridge sought to deceive by a plaintive cry and seeming helplessness, crossing before your very feet, till, when drawn to a sufficient distance, suddenly the air vibrated to the flutter of her active pinions.”

2. The flesh or meat of this bird eaten as food.
3. A type of cannon charge composed of several missiles fired all together, similar to langrage or case-shot. Also a large cannon that shoots stones.