Quote Originally Posted by Cocos
How about "попугай" word.
I was thinking about the word a while ago, and that's when I realized the origin. Researching it a bit later only confirmed it.

It actually has nothing to do with the verb (по)пугать, the word is actually Arabic in origin, it comes from the Arabic word babbaghaa, which means, well, parrot. I think it went through a few languages before it entered the Russian lexicon (obviously since Arabic does not have the sound "p").