- 1風信雞（屋頂上公雞造型的風向標；就是 weather vane 的一種）。比喻人時＝牆頭草、風向球，指立場隨風轉的人。這個字偏舊、偏文學，現在一般說 weather vane
A weathercock is a metal arrow or pointer that sits on top of a roof, church tower or barn and turns to show which way the wind is blowing. It is a weather vane, and "weathercock" is the name for one shaped like a — a male chicken standing with its tail up, the shape you see on old European churches. Because that shape was so common for so long, the two words became almost in ordinary speech.
Why a ? The tradition is European and church-linked, and people have told various stories about it over the centuries; I would not swear to any single explanation. What is certain is that by the Middle Ages the on the was ordinary enough for English to have this compound word for it.
Today the word feels old and rural. You meet it in stories, poems, tourist descriptions of old villages, and puzzles far more than in conversation — most modern speakers just say "weather vane".
It also has a figurative use worth knowing. Call a person a weathercock and you mean they change their opinion whenever the mood around them changes — they always point wherever the wind is blowing. It is a criticism, usually about politicians, and it is more common in British English and in older writing. The picture is lovely and easy to remember: the thing on the roof has no opinion of its own; it only shows what the air is doing.
組成weather（天氣、風）+ cock（公雞）。Middle English weþercok。字面就是「天氣公雞」——屋頂上那隻會轉的公雞，指給你看風往哪邊吹。
原始詞典資料6 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
weathercocknoun
- 1
A weather vane, sometimes in the form of a cockerel.
- 2
One who veers with every change of current opinion; a fickle, inconstant person.
- 3
A kind of wind pump whose top behaves like a weather vane, moving with the wind direction, but which also has a wheel attached to measure wind speed.
weathercockverb
- 1
To turn upwind because of the difference in water pressure on two sides.
- 2
To veer into the direction of the oncoming (relative) wind.
- 3
To act as a weathercock for.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。