Etymologically
Log in

falco

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 24 October 2026 at 04:58. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈfaɫ.koː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈfal.ko][1]

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]

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