gyrfalcon

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English

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A gyrfalcon.

Alternative forms

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Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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Noun

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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 [London]: […] T[homas] N[ewcomb] 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:
      [T]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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Translations to be checked

Further reading

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