DCHP-2

noddy ((1)) noddie DCHP-2 (October 2016)

• n. — Newfoundland, Fauna

  Northern fulmar, fulmarus glacialis (see Image 1); also known as Arctic fulmar.

  Type: 3. Semantic Change — The term noddy is used in several different countries to refer to birds of the Anous and Procelsterna families (OED-3, s.v. "noddy" (2a)). In Newfoundland, however, noddy was adopted by locals to refer to a bird that belongs to neither genus -- the northern fulmar (see DNE, s.v. "noddy (n.1)), and the 1974 quotation). James Yonge, a surgeon from Plymouth, during his travels to Newfoundland in the 17th century heard noddy used as a name for the sea-bird Anous stolidus (in Poynter 1963: 54). Thus, it is unclear whether noddy is a preservation from British English that was semantically altered, or a new term that arose because of the fulmar's tendency to nod its head in flight (see the 1945 and 1994 quotations).
  See also COD-2, s.v. "noddy", which is marked "Cdn (Nfld)", and OED-3, s.v. "noddy" (n1 (2b)), which is marked "Newfoundland".