Other forms: scarecrows
A scarecrow is a figure of straw put in a field to frighten birds off. Build a scarecrow, an old scarecrow, the scarecrow in the field.
It stops working within days, because birds learn quickly that a thing which never moves is not a threat — which is why modern versions flap, bang or shine. It replaced older names like bogle and shoy-hoy. The compound is simply scare plus crow.
1nounscarecrowA straw figure put in a field to frighten birds.
“The farmer dressed the scarecrow in an old hat and coat.”
scarecrow is a figure.
Scare plus crow. It displaced older words such as bogle and shoy-hoy, the latter perhaps imitating the cry used to drive birds off.
The noun is derived from scare + crow. The word displaced other terms such as bogle now dialectal, sewel or shewel, and shoy-hoy (perhaps imitative of the cry of crows). The verb is derived from the noun.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA