Whirligig

A whirligig is an object that spins or whirls, or has at least one member that spins or whirls in the wind.

The word, derived from the verb to whirl, is known in English since 1440, originally for various spinning toys. [The "Oxford English Dictionary" cites the 1440 "Promptorium Parvulorum", the first English-Latin Dictionary, which contains the definition, "Whyrlegyge, chyldys game, "giraculum"."]

Since ancient times, a whirligig was a spinning punitive or torture contraption comprising a suspended cage-like device; see Whirligig (torture). [ [http://www.getchwood.com/punishments/curious/chapter-10.html#TOC11 Getchwood Curious punishments] .]

Modern whirligigs are generally decorative and entertaining, such as lawn ornaments and wind-powered hanging art.

Miscellaneous

*The U.S. granted a patent for a yo-yo like device called a "whirligig" in 1866. [Ohio Historical Society, 2005, [http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=2739 "Whirligig"] , Ohio History Central: An Online Encyclopedia of Ohio History.]
*Paul Fleischman's book "Whirligig" is about a teenage who builds whirligigs as a way to repay the mother of a girl he killed in a drunk driving accident.
*A "whirligig" can also refer to a very small whirling of air, like a micro-cyclone.
* In the game , a game set in a world filled with strange and dangerous phenomenon called anomalies, the "whirligig" is a lethal gravitational anomaly which drags people / mutants into the air and spins them at immeasurable speed until they disintegrate.
* The title of a play by American playwright Mac Wellman.
* The book Missing May by Cynthia Rylant, May's uncle, Ob, makes whirligigs.
* A whirligig appears as a vehicle in the Sony Playstation One game Spyro: Year of the Dragon.

References