Also 8 tokan, 9 toukan. [= F. toucan, Sp. tucan, Pg., It. tucano, a. Brazilian, Tupi tucana, Guarani tucà, tucān (a nasal), the native name, prob. from its cry or call; but other suggestions have been offered.
The statement of Buffon that the name means ‘feather’ arose from his misunderstanding a statement of Léry c. 1558: see J. Platt in N. & Q., 9th s. VII. 486–VIII. 250.]
1. A Neotropical bird of the genus Rhamphastos, or, in a wider use, of the family Rhamphastidæ, inhabiting the tropical parts of South America, a few species being also found in Central America and Mexico. They are noted for the enormous size of the beak and their striking coloring. The species originally so named was app. R. toco.
[1558. Thevet, Sing. France Antarctique. D’un oyseau qu’ils appellent en leur langue Toucan.]
1568. trans. Thevet’s New-found World, 73. Or a birde named toucan.
1634. T. Johnson, Parey’s Chirurg., XXV. xxii. (1678), 621. He saw a Bird in America, which in that Countrey Speech is called Touca,… that the beak in length and thickness exceeds the bigness of the rest of the body.
1668. Charleton, Onomast., 115. Tucana … Toucan.
1677. Plot, Oxfordsh., 178. In … 1644 the Pica Brasiliensis, or Toucan, whose beak is near as big as its whole body, was found within two miles of Oxford.
1681. Grew, Musæum, I. IV. i. 59. The Head of the Toucan, so called by the Indians.
1796. Stedman, Surinam, I. vi. 117. The toucan is not larger than a tame pigeon, and yet its beak is no less than six inches in length.
1863. Bates, Nat. Amazon, xii. (1864), 404. Toucans…. Two of them are often heard yelping alternately, and in different notes. These cries have a vague resemblance to the syllables Tocáno, Tocáno, and hence the Indian name of this genus of birds.
1875. Whitney, Life Lang., vii. 120. The cuckoo and the peewee and the toucan were named from their notes.
b. Sometimes applied or misapplied to other birds with large or curious beaks; East Indies to species of Hornbill (Buceros).
But the word in the latter case is said to be the Malay tukang ‘workman’ or ‘artificer,’ and entirely distinct from the Brazilian: see Yule & Burnell, Hobson-Jobson.
1816. Tuckey, Narr. Exped. R. Zaire, iii. (1818), 82. Several varieties of the king fisher, a toukan, and many small birds.
1862. Jerdon, Birds of India, I. 242. They [the hornbills] are, indeed, popularly called Toucans throughout India; and this appears to be their name in some of the Malayan isles; the word signifying ‘worker,’ from the noise they make.
2. Astron. Name of a southern constellation.
1669. Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., VI. iii. 128. The Bird Toucan [pr. Taican], or Brasilian Pye, in which Constellation is 7 Stars.
1868. Lockyer, Guillemin’s Heavens, xii. (1872), 319. The splendid cluster in Toucan, quite visible to the naked eye.
3. Comb., as toucan skin, etc.; toucan-beak, the beak of the toucan, or the substance of this used as a decorative material.
1862. List Contrib. fr. Brit. Guiana to Lond. Exhib., in Veness, El Dorado (1866), App. 145. Tassel of Toucan Skins, worn by the Accawai Indians … hanging down the back.
1886. Art Jrnl., Exh. Suppl., 26/2. Some clever and minute carvings in toucan-beak set with alternate links in gold.
Hence Toucanet, any of the smaller kinds of toucan, as those of the genera Pteroglossus and Selenidera; Toucanity, nonce-wd., the character of a toucan.
1825. Waterton, Wand. S. Amer., II. 118. There are three species of Toucans in Demerara, and three diminutives, which may be called Toucanets.
1892. Cornh. Mag., May, 525. A large bill … a mark of perfect and advanced toucanity.
