bufflehead

English

Male

Female

Etymology

Compound of buffle (“buffalo”) +‎ head, so called for its large head.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbʌfəlhɛd/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

bufflehead (plural buffleheads)

1. A duck in the goldeneye genus, Bucephala albeola. [from 1850s]

   Synonyms: butterbox, woolhead

2. (obsolete) One who has a large head; a heavy, stupid fellow. [from 1650s]
   • 1694, unknown translation, Plautus:

     What makes you stare so, bufflehead?

Translations

a duck in the goldeneye genus

• Ahtna: kaskae utseʼe
• Breton: garv kilpenn gwenn
• Catalan: morell capblanc m
• Czech: hohol bělavý (cs) m
• Dena'ina: tajehi, tsilbesi, sukna tsighał, bentlʼu qelchʼeli
• Dutch: buffelkopeend (nl)
• Esperanto: grandkapa klangulo
• Finnish: pikkutelkkä (fi)
• French: garrot albéole m, petit garrot m
• German: Büffelkopfente f
• Hungarian: fehérfejű kerceréce
• Italian: quattrocchi minore m
• Japanese: 姫羽白 (himehajiro), ヒメハジロ
• Lower Tanana: tl'aɬtaɬ
• Nahuatl: āmanacocheh
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: bøffeland f

• Polish: gągołek (pl) m
• Portuguese: pato-de-touca-branca m
• Romanian: rață sunătoare americană f
• Russian: ма́лый го́голь m (mályj gógolʹ)
• Spanish: porrón coronado m, pato moñudo m, pato pinto m, porrón albeola m
• Swedish: buffelhuvud c
• Ukrainian: малий гоголь m (malyj hoholʹ)

Further reading

• Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “bufflehead”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.