Forms: 3–4 faukun, 4 faucoun, -kon, -koun, 4 facoun, 4–7 faucon(e, 5–6 facon, 5–7 faw(l)con, -kon, (5 fawken), 6–8 faulcon, (7 -kon), 5– falcon. [ME. faucon (faukun), a. OF. faucon, falcun, ad. late L. falcōn-em, falco, commonly believed to be f. falc-, falx sickle, the name being due to the resemblance of the hooked talons to a reaping-hook. Cf. It. falcone, Sp. halcon. In the 15th cent. the spelling was refashioned after Lat.]
1. Ornith. One of a family of the smaller diurnal birds of prey, characterized by a short hooked beak, powerful claws, and great destructive power; esp. one trained to the pursuit of other birds or game, usually the Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus). In Falconry, applied only to the female, the male, being smaller and less adapted for the chase, is called the tercel or tiercel.
a. 1250. Owl & Night., 101. That other ȝer a faukun bredde.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. VII. 34. Fecche þe hom Faucons þe Foules to quelle.
1432–50. trans. Higden (Rolls), I. 335. Sparrehowke, ffawken, and gentille gossehawke.
1605. Shaks., Macb., II. iv. 12.
| A Faulcon towring in her pride of place, | |
| Was by a Mowsing Owle hawkt at, and kill’d. |
1653. Walton, Angler, i. (1655), 11. It [Air] stops not the high soaring of my noble generous Falcon.
1735. Somerville, The Chace, III. 94.
| But down we sweep, as stoops the Falcon bold | |
| To pounce his Prey. |
a. 1839. Praed, Poems (1864), I. 213, ‘Lidian’s Love,’ xviii.
| He laid a bet upon his falcon’s flight, | |
| Rode home, as usually he did, a winner. |
1868. Wood, Homes without H., xxix. 561. The Great Grey Shrike (Lanius excubitor), was formerly used as a falcon for the purpose of catching winged game.
b. with epithet defining the species.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., II. xlvi. By comparyson as fawcons pelegrines.
1678. Ray, Willughby’s Ornith., 79. It [the Red Falcon] is said to be lesser than a Peregrine Falcon.
1781. Latham, Hist. Birds, I. 54. White-rumped Bay Falcon.
1785. Pennant, Arct. Zool., II. 208. Plain Falcon.
1802. G. Montagu, Ornith. Dict., 537. White Falcon, a name for the Jer Falcon.
1821. Selby, Brit. Ornith., I. 39. Spotted Falcon: a name for the Peregrine Falcon.
1875. W. M‘Ilwraith, Guide to Wigtownshire, These cliffs are frequented by the Peregrine falcon.
2. A representation of a falcon.
1525. in Glasscock, Rec. St. Michael’s Bp. Stortford (1882), 39. For the scoryng … the facon and the branche before seynt mighill xiiijd.
1589. Hakluyt, Voy. (1600), III. 736. A … Gentleman, from whom our Generall tooke a Fawlcon of golde with a great Emeraud in the Breast thereof.
3. An ancient kind of light cannon.
[For the practice of naming species of fire-arms from birds of prey, cf. musket.]
1496. Ld. Bothwell, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., I. 13. I. 31. Ye provision of Ordinance … is bot litill … ij. great curtaldis … x. falconis or litill serpentinis.
1577–87. Harrison, England, II. xvi. (1877), 281. Falcon hath eight hundred pounds, and two inches and a half within the mouth.
1663. J. Heath, Flagellum; or the Life and Death, Birth and Burial of Oliver Cromwell, the late Usurper (1672), 103. There were found in it Five French Cannon, nine Dutch half Cannon, two Culverings, two demy Culverings, two Minions, two Falcons.
1805. Scott, Last Minstr., IV. xx.
| Falcon and culver on each tower, | |
| Stood prompt their deadly hail to shower. |
1849. J. Grant, Memoirs of Sir William Kirkaldy of Grange, xv. 163. The royal stores at Dunbar furnished his troops with falcons, or light six-pound field-pieces.
4. Comb. chiefly attrib., as (sense 1) falcon-face, -fisher, -flight, -guise, -nest; falcon-eyed adj.; falcon-like adj. and adv.; (sense 3) falcon-shot.
1847. Tennyson, The Princess, II. 25.
| Erect behind a desk of satin-wood, | |
| A quick brunette, well-moulded, *falcon-eyed. |
1891. Miss Dowie, Girl in Karp., xiii. 171. He had the genuine *‘falcon-face’ of the Huculs.
1759. trans. Adanson’s Voy. Senegal, in Pinkerton Voy. (1814), XVI. 649. The *falcon-fisher … is a bird about the bigness of a goose.
a. 1835. Mrs. Hemans, Poems, The Indian with His Dead Child.
| In the silence of the midnight | |
| I journey with the dead, | |
| Where the arrows of my father’s bow | |
| Their *falcon flight have sped. |
1889. R. B. Anderson, trans. Rydberg’s Teut. Mythol., 60. In the Norse mythology several godesses or dises have, as we know, feather-guises, with which they fly through space. Freyja had a *falcon-guise.
a. 1649. Drumm. of Hawth., Elegy G. Adolphus, Wks. (1711), 54.
| That when thy Honour’s Harvest was ripe grown | |
| With full plum’d wing thou Faulkon-like could fly, | |
| And cuff the Eagle in the German Sky. |
1852. Reade, Peg Woff. (1853), 88. To see her falcon-like stoop upon the stage.
1814. Scott, The Lord of the Isles, IV. viii.
| From Canna’s tower, that, steep and grey, | |
| Like *falcon-nest o’erhangs the bay. |
1598. Barret, Theor. Warres, V. iii. 134. 2 thousand *Falcon shot.
1600. Hakluyt, Voy., III. 714. It is within falcon-shot of the ships.
