gyrfalcon

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English

A gyrfalcon.

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Old French gerfaucon (modern French gerfaut), with the first element probably from Old High German gīr (vulture) (whence the German Geier).

Pronunciation

Noun

gyrfalcon (plural gyrfalcons)

  1. (obsolete) Any large falcon, especially as used to fly at herons.
    • 1668 June 22 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), John Dryden, An Evening’s Love, or The Mock-Astrologer. , In the Savoy : T N for Henry Herringman, , published 1671, →OCLC, Act IV, page 53:
      For I obſerve, that all vvomen of your condition are like the vvomen of the Play-houſe, ſtill Piquing at each other, vvho ſhall go the beſt Dreſt, and in the Richeſt Habits: till you vvork up one another by your high flying, as the Heron and Jerfalcon do.
  2. Falco rusticolus, a large bird of prey that breeds on Arctic coasts and islands of North America, Europe and Asia.
    • 2007, Michael Chabon, Gentlemen of the Road, Sceptre, published 2008, page 132:
      he usurper Buljan ordered that his sukkah be erected on the donjon's roof, with its [] relative nearness to the stars, among which his sky-worshiping and uncircumcised ancestors still hunted with infallible gyrfalcons for celestial game.

Translations

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Further reading