faucon

Forms

faucon m (plural faucons)^[1] Old French falcun (about 1100), remade as faucon in the 12th century; the nominative was faus.^[2][3][4] Middle French faulcon.^[1][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin falcō (“falcon”), recorded from the 4th century,^[5][2][6][7] through its accusative falcōnem.^[2][6] Wiktionary treats the French word as inherited.^[1]

The Latin word is usually explained as a derivative of falx (“sickle, scythe”), for the curve of the bird's beak, claws or wings.^{[6][8][9][4][3]} Rey leaves open whether it is that or a borrowing from Germanic, noting that Old High German falcho itself seems taken from Latin;^[2] Wiktionary favours a Germanic origin.^[1] Bloch and Wartburg hold that the Germanic words, such as the Old High German word and German Falke, are loans from Latin; the Old French gerfaut, from Frankish *geirifalko, is no proof of a Germanic origin, since Frankish could have taken the word from Latin first.^[6]

Cognate with Italian falcone, Spanish halcón, Portuguese falcão and Old Occitan falc.^[6][2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as falcun about 1100 in the Chanson de Roland: Plus est isnels que nen est uns falcuns (“he is swifter than a falcon”).^[5][3]

Semantic evolution

The word kept the Latin sense of a diurnal bird of prey with a hooked beak.^[2] Its importance came from the falcons trained for hawking, a pursuit very much alive throughout the Middle Ages that left many terms in the language.^[2]

By a figure the word named a small cannon used in the 16th and 17th centuries (couleuvrines faucons, 1466).^[5][2] About 1960 it became a political term, a calque of American English hawk, for a supporter of force in settling a conflict, opposed to the colombe “dove”.^[2][5][9]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – Falcun appears in the Chanson de Roland.^[5][4]
• 12th century – The form faucon is found in Roncevaux.^[4][2]
• c. 1160 – The derivative fauconnier “falconer” is recorded.^[2]
• c. 1354 – Fauconnerie “hawking” appears.^[2]
• 1466 – A letter of Louis XI uses it for a cannon.^[5][2]
• 1498 – Fauconnel, later fauconneau, names a small cannon.^[2][6]
• c. 1960 – It is used of a political hawk.^[2][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A falcon, a diurnal bird of prey with a short hooked beak and pointed wings, formerly trained for hunting.^[9][5]
2. (politics) A hawk, a supporter of a hard line or of force in a conflict.^[9][5][1]
3. (historical) A small-calibre cannon of the 16th and 17th centuries.^[5][4][2]

Word family

• fauconneau
• fauconnerie
• fauconnier

Related words

• falconidés
• gerfaut

Usage notes

In politics the faucons are contrasted with the colombes, the advocates of conciliation.^[5][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
4. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
6. ^ a b c d e f Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3, 381a
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert