Sparhawk

Now arch. or dial. Forms: α. 1 spaerhabuc, spearhafoc, 4–7 sparhauk(e, 5–6 Sc. -halk, 5–7 -hawke, 6– sparhawk. β. 4–6 sperhauk(e, 5–7 -hawk(e. γ. 4, 6 sparehauk(e, 5 -hawk, 7 -haucke. δ. 4, 6 sperehauke, 5 -hawk(e. [OE. spearhafoc, f. the stem of spearwa SPARROW + hafoc HAWK: So ON. sparrhaukr.] A sparrowhawk.

  α.  c. 725.  Corpus Gloss., A 432. Alietum, spaerhabuc.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 132. Accipiter, uel raptor, spearhafoc.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 1789. Þe sparhauk flough be þe sterling.

c. 1374.  Chaucer, Troylus, III. 1192. What might or may the sely larke seie, Whanne that this sparhauk hath it in his foote?

1438.  Bk. Alexander Grt. (Bann.), 12. It semis thay sparhalkis war & we lawrokis that durst bot dar.

1483.  Caxton, Cato, h vj b. It is sayd in a comyn prouerbe that crafte is better than the Sparhawke.

1560.  Rolland, Seven Sages, 28. The Sparhalk is als swyft of flicht As the Griffoun.

1598.  Bp. Hall, Sat., IV. iv. 85. Gallio may … tend his spar-hauke mantling in her mew.

1639.  Massinger, Unnatural Combat, V. i. How her heart beats! Much like a partridge in a sparhawk’s foot.

1661.  J. Childrey, Brit. Baconica, 13. Sparhawks, the most useless of Hawks.

1700.  Tyrrell, Hist. Eng., 820. The Ayries of Hawks, of Spar-Hawks.

1842.  Tennyson, Sir Launc. & Q. Guinevere, ii. Sometimes the sparhawk wheel’d along.

1865.  Kingsley, Herew., iv. In the first [copse] there built an eagle, in the second there built a sparhawk.

1891.  [D. Jordan] (‘Son of Marshes’), On Surrey Hills, ii. 44. Spar’-hawk, the woodmen call him very fitly, for he or ‘she,’ as they say, will fly at anything.

  β.  1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. VI. 199. What pieres preyed hem to do as prest as a sperhauke.

1387.  Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), I. 335. Þere is grete plente of … sperhaukes.

1456.  Sir G. Haye, Law Arms (S.T.S.), 299. That he be lord of his subjectis, as to the quaile the sper-hauk.

c. 1489.  Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, vi. 152. The kyng gaaf to hym a sperhawke.

1523.  Fitzherb., Survey., xi. 26. Except it be an entiere rent, as a sperhauke or a hors.

1555.  Eden, Decades (Arb.), 300. Haukes, as faulcons, gerfalcons, lanners, and sperhaukes.

1602.  L. Lloyd, Briefe Conf. Divers Lawes, 32. The feather of a sperhawke in their caps.

  γ.  c. 1400.  Maundev. (1839), xxii. 238. Gerfacouns, Sparehaukes, Faukons gentyls.

1486.  Bk. St. Albans, c viij b. She may be also callid a spare hawke for .ij. Resones, oon is she sparith goshawkys and tercellys both.

1550.  J. Coke, Eng. & Fr. Heralds, § 8 (1877), 60. Also we have hawkes of the towre,… lykewyse goshawkes, and sparehawkes for ladyes.

1587.  Golding, De Mornay, xxvi. (1592), 416. The Woolfe, the Foxe,… the Sparehauke, the Kyte & so foorth.

1612.  Shuttleworths’ Acc. (Chetham Soc.), 201. Foure sparehaucke hoodes, xij^d.

1890.  J. Watson, Nat. & Woodcraft, viii. The Gamekeeper … will record a black and bloody list of depredations against the ‘spare’-hawk.

  δ.  1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XII. iv. (Bodl. MS.). Hereby it semeþ þ^t alietus and a litel sperehauke is all one.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 468/2. Sperehawke…, nisus.

c. 1500.  Melusine, xxiv. 175. His enemyes fled byfore hym as the partrych doth byfore the sperehauke.