falco

Forms

falcō m (genitive falcōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

Its origin is disputed.^[1][2] The OLD derives it from Latin falx (“sickle, pruning hook”) + -ō, and the TLL explains the name for a person with inward-turning toes in the same way;^[3][4][5] the TLL thinks the bird's name may be the same word.^[4] Etymonline also finds the derivation from the sickle probable, from the shape of the bird's talons, legs or beak, or perhaps of its spread wings.^[2] Isidore already said that the falcon is so called because of its curved talons.^[4][6]

Others take the bird's name from Germanic, where the word is old and widespread: Walde, Köbler and Wiktionary compare Old High German falco (“falcon”) and trace it to Proto-Germanic *falkô (“falcon”), perhaps “the grey bird”, from Proto-Indo-European *pelH- (“grey, bluish”).^[7][8][1] Wiktionary regards the link with the sickle as a folk etymology,^[1] while Etymonline notes the objection that falconry came to the Germans from the Romans.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The bird is first named in an Old Latin version of Leviticus, among the birds that are to be abhorred and not eaten; the Greek and the Vulgate lack it there.^[4][9][8] The sense that the OLD gives, a person whose big toes turn inward “from their likeness to a sickle”, is preserved by Festus in Paul the Deacon's abridgement.^{[3][4][10][5]}

Semantic evolution

Servius tells that a certain Falco founded Capua, whose toes were curved as falcons' are, and that the Etruscans called such men capys;^[4][10] Isidore says that what is called capys in the Italic tongue “we call falcō”.^[4][6] Polemius Silvius lists it among the names of birds, and Sidonius Apollinaris uses it figuratively in a letter.^[4]

In Medieval Latin it was the hawk of falconry.^[11][12][13] A capitulary of 769 forbids the servants of God to keep hawks and falcons,^[14] and a synod at Pavia in 850 speaks of hawks “which the common people call falcōnēs”.^[14] Boniface sent two falcons as a token of love,^[12] falcons were owed as a tribute,^[12][13] and Frederick II and Albertus Magnus distinguish many kinds, Albertus ten noble ones.^[12] In Poland it also named the duty of guarding falcons' nests, later paid as a tax.^[13] Du Cange records it for a curved lance in a synod of Nîmes in 1284, and Neo-Latin used it for a kind of cannon.^[14][15] It survives in Italian falcone, French faucon and Spanish halcón,^[4][2] and English took falcon from Old French in the mid-13th century.^[2]

Timeline

• after 220 AD – An Old Latin version of Leviticus names the falcon among unclean birds.^[4][8]
• c. 400 AD – Servius compares the curved toes of the founder of Capua to a falcon's.^[4][10][8]
• c. 431–486 AD – Sidonius Apollinaris uses it figuratively.^[4][8]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore names it from its curved talons.^[4][8]
• 769 – A capitulary forbids clerics to keep hawks and falcons.^[14]
• 8th century AD – Paul the Deacon's abridgement of Festus explains it of people with inward-turning big toes.^[4][10][8]
• 850 – A synod at Pavia calls it the common people's word for a hawk.^[14]
• mid-13th century – English falcon is recorded, from Old French.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person whose big toes turn inward.^[3][10][5]
2. (Late Latin) A falcon.^{[10][16][5][9]}
3. (Medieval Latin) A hawk used in falconry;^[11][12][17] also the duty of guarding falcons' nests, or a tax paid instead.^[13]
4. (Medieval Latin) A curved lance.^[14]
5. (New Latin) A kind of cannon, a falconet.^[15]

Related words

• flectō
• falx
• English falcon

Usage notes

Medieval Latin also had a verb falcō, -āre, “to mow, cut with a scythe”, formed from falx;^[12][1] it is common in charters about the mowing of hay,^[12][18][13] and Gauricus uses it in a Neo-Latin eclogue.^[15] Falcō was also a Roman cognomen.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
6. ^ a b Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
7. ^ Walde, Alois (1906), Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
8. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
9. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
12. ^ a b c d e f g Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
13. ^ a b c d e Lexicon mediae et infimae Latinitatis Polonorum (1953–), Kraków: Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN; electronic ed. elexicon.scriptores.pl
14. ^ a b c d e f du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
15. ^ a b c Ramminger, Johann, Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700, www.neulatein.de
16. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
17. ^ Latinitatis medii aevi lexicon Bohemorum / Slovník středověké latiny v českých zemích (1977–), Prague: Academia; electronic version, Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences
18. ^ Bartal, Antal, et al. (1987–), Lexicon Latinitatis Medii Aevi Hungariae, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó; online ed. ELTE