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Etymology and origin of the English word hawk

English has three main words spelled hawk: the bird of prey, inherited from Old English; the verb "to peddle", formed from hawker; and the verb "to clear the throat", which imitates the sound.[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈhɔːk/[4]

hawk1 bird of prey

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
Old English, Épinal Glossary
Inherited from
Old English hafoc via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Proto-Germanic *habukaz

Etymology

The bird is inherited from Middle English hauk, earlier havek,[5][3] inherited from Old English hafoc (Mercian heafuc, earlier habuc),[5][3][6] from Proto-Germanic *habukaz.[5][3][7][8] It is cognate with Old Frisian havek, Old Saxon habuc, Dutch havik, Old High German habuh, German Habicht, Old Norse haukr, Swedish hök and Danish høg.[3][9][6] Barnhart and Hoad compare Polish kobuz (“a hawk or kite”).[3][7] Etymonline, Klein and the AHD refer it to an Indo-European root meaning "to seize", Proto-Indo-European *kap-,[5][9][2][8] and the OED, which calls this derivation the usual one, compares Latin accipiter (“hawk”) and capiō (“to take”).[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A bird of prey used in falconry: Old English, in the Épinal Glossary.[10] Barnhart dates the Old English form -habuc to about 700.[3]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) still defined the hawk as a bird of prey "used much anciently in sport to catch other birds".[11] The verb, to hunt with a hawk, is recorded from 1340,[10][5] and in 1399 birds and insects were said to hawk when they hunted on the wing.[10] From 1548 the name was applied to people who prey on others,[10] and the thieves' dictionary of about 1698 has it for a card sharper.[12] The political sense, someone who favours war or a hard line, is dated to 1956 by Etymonline, which takes it as the opposite of dove,[5] and to 1962 by Barnhart and the Historical Thesaurus.[3][13] Barnhart thinks it short for war hawk, a term probably coined by Thomas Jefferson for those who favoured war with France,[3] and the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins links the hawk–dove pair to the Cuban missile crisis of the early 1960s.[14]

Timeline

  • c. 700 – Old English -habuc.[3]
  • c. 1200 – havek.[5][3]
  • c. 1300 – hauk.[5]
  • 1340 – the verb, to hunt with a hawk.[10]
  • 1399 – of birds and insects, to hunt on the wing.[10]
  • 1548 – a person who preys on others.[10]
  • c. 1698 – a card sharper (cant).[12]
  • 1956 – a supporter of warlike policies (Etymonline);[5] 1962 (Barnhart).[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A diurnal bird of prey with short rounded wings and a long tail, such as the goshawk.
  2. (US, Canada) Loosely, any similar bird of prey, including the falcons.
  3. A person who favours war or aggressive policies, as opposed to a dove.
  4. A ruthless or greedy person who preys on others.

Verb

  1. To hunt with trained hawks; practise falconry.
  2. Of a bird or insect, to hunt prey while flying.

Word family

  • hawkish
  • hawk-eyed
  • goshawk
  • sparrowhawk

hawk2 peddle

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Back-formation
First attested
late 15th century
Borrowed from
Middle Low German höker

Etymology

To peddle is a back-formation from hawker (about 1400),[5][10][1][6] which is probably borrowed from Middle Low German höker (“peddler”),[3][1] from höken (“to peddle, carry on the back, squat”).[3][5] It is related to Middle Dutch hoken (“to peddle”), German hocken (“to squat”) and Old Norse húka (“to crouch”), from Proto-Germanic *huk-.[3][5] The modern spelling appeared before 1425.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Shorter Oxford dates the verb to the late 15th century,[6] as do Etymonline and the Oxford Dictionary of English,[5][15] while Barnhart finds it implied in hauking, peddling from house to house, in 1390.[3] The OED's first quotation, an Act of Henry VIII of 1542, means to work as a hawker.[10]

Semantic evolution

The transitive use, to carry goods about and cry them in the street, is first quoted from Swift in 1713,[10][16] and its figurative use, of ideas or stories, from Swift too, before 1745.[10] In 1862 Carlyle used it for travelling round an area with something to sell.[10] Etymonline notes that, despite the word's link with stooping under a load, a hawker was strictly distinguished from a peddler by using a horse and cart or a van.[5] In Northamptonshire dialect hawk also meant to carry something about laboriously and for no purpose.[17]

Timeline

  • 1390 – hauking, peddling.[3]
  • c. 1400 – hawker.[5]
  • late 15th century – the verb.[6]
  • 1542 – to work as a hawker.[10]
  • 1713 – to carry goods about for sale (Swift).[10][16]
  • 1862 – to travel round an area selling (Carlyle).[10]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To offer goods for sale by calling out in the street or going from door to door; peddle.
  2. To try to sell or promote an idea or product to many people: hawking his business plan round the banks.

Word family

  • hawker

hawk3 clear the throat

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Onomatopoeia
First attested
1581, R. Mulcaster, Positions

Etymology

Clearing the throat is probably imitative of the sound.[10][3][5][7][2] Partridge and Weekley also call it echoic or imitative.[18][19]

Earliest recorded meaning

To bring something up from the throat, 1581, in Richard Mulcaster's Positions;[10][3] the intransitive use, to clear the throat noisily, follows in 1582.[10]

Semantic evolution

The noun, a noisy clearing of the throat, is first recorded in 1604, in Middleton.[10][3] In Scotland and England the verb was in general dialect and colloquial use, in forms such as haak, hauch and hooak, and could also mean to cough or to spit.[17]

Timeline

  • 1581 – to bring up phlegm (Mulcaster).[10][3]
  • 1582 – to clear the throat noisily.[10]
  • 1604 – the noun (Middleton).[10][3]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To clear the throat noisily, as if to bring up phlegm.
  2. To bring up phlegm in this way, often with up.

Noun

  1. A noisy clearing of the throat.

Usage notes

A fourth hawk, a plasterer's square board with a handle underneath for holding mortar, is of unknown origin;[7][9][6] Weekley thought it might be the bird's name, comparing French oiseau (“bird”), used for a hod.[19] In Cumberland, Westmorland and Northamptonshire dialect it also meant a bricklayer's hod, and a hawky or hawk-boy was the labourer who carried it.[17]

References

  1. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  2. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  9. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  12. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  13. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  14. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  15. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  16. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  17. ^ a b c Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  18. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  19. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray

Related etymologies

  • wake · also from Middle Low German
  • trade · also from Middle Low German
  • deal · also from Middle Low German
  • smile · also from Middle Low German
  • tip · also from Middle Low German
  • mate · also from Middle Low German
  • shock · also from Middle Low German
  • strip · also from Middle Low German
Cite this entry

“Hawk.” Etymologically, 22 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/hawk. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.

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