potrack

English

Etymology

Onomatopoeic.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɒtɹak/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈpɑtɹæk/

Interjection

potrack

1. (dated, especially Southern US) The shrill, high-pitched noise of a guinea fowl.
   • 1898, Bradford Torrey, “Virginia”, in A World of Green Hills: Observations of Nature and Human Nature in the Blue Ridge‎^[1], Houghton, Mifflin, and Company, page 186:

     Here and there cattle were grazing, guinea fowls were calling potrack in tones which not even the magic of distance could render musical […]

   • 2003 November 29, DittyDu...@webtv.net, “Thanksgiving over, now TRUTH!”, in alt.fifty-plus.friends‎^[2]:

     My grandmother got me some guinea eggs once, to put under one of those hens. Their "potrack, potrack, potrack" had all the neighbors up in arms after a while

   • 2019 May 20, Terrell Greene, Terry’s Run: An American Life 1923 ...‎^[3], Xlibris, →ISBN:

     […] a few guinea hens pecking for seeds or worms and calling out their idiot incessant potrack, potrack, potrack.

Verb

potrack (third-person singular simple present potracks, present participle potracking, simple past and past participle potracked)

1. (archaic, chiefly African-American Vernacular) To make such a shrill, high-pitched noise.
   • 1920, Marie Conway Oernler, “IV: The Soul of Black Folks”, in The Purple Heights‎^[4], New York: Century Co.:

     "Dem guineas potracked en waked me up, Son," whispered Neptune. "Now I aims to git whut 's been sneakin' off wid my fowls."

   • 1932, Julia Mood Peterkin, chapter V, in Bright Skin: A Novel‎^[5], University of Georgia Press, published 1998, →ISBN, page 43:

     Cocks crowed, guineas potracked, calves and goats bleated. A strain of music sang out above the confusion of sounds […]

   • 1941, Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves‎^[6], volume 13, Washington, DC: Library of Congress, →OCLC, page 334:

     Come de daybreak you hear de guinea fowls start potracking down at de edge of de woods lot, and den de roosters all start up 'round de barn and de ducks finally wake up and jine in.