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Added 10 October 2026

falcon

/ˈfɔː(l)kən/ noun

In Latin: falcō Wiktionary

noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about falcon at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

Any bird of the genus Falco, all of which are birds of prey.
Any bird of prey of the subfamilies Falconinae and Herpetotherinae.
A female such bird, a male being a tiercel.

verb

To hunt with a falcon or falcons.

Origin

Inherited from Middle English faucoun, falcon, faulcon, from Old French falcun, from Late Latin falcō (“falcon”), of Germanic origin, probably via Frankish *falkō (“falcon, hawk”), from Proto-Germanic *falkô (“falcon”), from Proto-Indo-European *pol̑- (“pale”), from *pel- (“fallow”). Cognates Cognate with Old English *fealca, fealcen (“falcon”), Dutch valk (“falcon, hawk”), German Falke (“falcon, hawk”), Norwegian and Swedish falk (“falcon”), Icelandic fálki (“falcon”), French faucon (“falcon”), Italian falco (“falcon”), Spanish halcón (“falcon”), Portuguese falcão (“falcon”), Latin falco (“falcon”), Lithuanian pálšas (“pale”), Latvian bāls (“pale”), Latgalian buolgs (“pale”).

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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