indicator, noun

Origin:
Modern LatinShow more Modern Latin, ‘one who guides or points out’, from former scientific name Cuculus indicator.
obs. except in historical contexts
honey-guide.
[1786 G. Forster tr. of A. Sparrman’s Voy. to Cape of G.H. II. 181A little bird, which flies on by degrees with the alluring note of cherr, cherr, cherr, and guides its followers to the bees’ nest..the little cuculus indicator, which I have described and given a drawing of in the Phil. Trans.]
1790 tr. of F. Le Vaillant’s Trav. I. 372Naturalists, for what reason I know not, place the indicator among the cuckoos.
c1808 C. von Linné System of Nat. Hist. VIII. 235The small indicator is about six inches long. The bill is conical, pointed.
1828 W. Shaw Diary. 22 MayThe Chief gave me a quantity of honey in the comb, which one of the young men, had just taken from a rock, having been guided thereto, by that singular bird, called the ‘Indicator’ and described by many of our Naturalists.
1835 A. Steedman Wanderings I. 190The trunk of the tree over which the indicator was hovering.
1923 Haagner & Ivy Sketches of S. Afr. Bird-Life 271The nestling Indicator has the swollen nostrils characteristic of the Cuckoo-nestling, but instead of being rounded as in the Cuculidae, they are elongated.
1994 M. Roberts tr. of J.A. Wahlberg’s Trav. Jrnls 1838–56 36Saw a Kaffer following an Indicator.
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obsolete or obsolescent
Indian, nounn. & adjectiveadj.indlamu, nounn.
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