English
figpecker
From fig + pecker, as it was believed to gorge itself on figs when in season.
Latin fīcus ‘fig tree’
…
Old Occitan figa ‘fig (fruit)’
Old French figue ‘fig (fruit)’
Anglo-Norman figue
Middle English fige ‘a fig tree’
English fig
Proto-Germanic *pikkōną ‘to pick, peck, prick’
…
Old English *piccian
Middle English piken ‘to pick at’
Middle English pekken
Middle English pekker
English pecker
The story
From fig + pecker, as it was believed to gorge itself on figs when in season.
Today it means
noun A bird, the western Orphean warbler, Sylvia hortensis, prized by gourmets.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / figpecker