sparhawk Now arch. or dial.
(ˈspɑːhɔːk)
Forms: α. 1 spaerhabuc, spearhafoc, 4–7 sparhauk(e, 5–6 Sc. -halk, 5–7 -hawke, 6– sparhawk. β. 4–6 sperhauk(e, 5–7 -hawk(e. γ. 4, 6 sparehauk(e, 5 -hawk, 7 -haucke. δ. 4, 6 sperehauke, 5 -hawk(e.
[OE. spearhafoc, f. the stem of spearwa sparrow + hafoc hawk: so ON. sparrhaukr.]
A sparrowhawk.
| α c 725 Corpus Gloss. A. 432 Alietum, spaerhabuc. c 1000 ælfric Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 132 Accipiter, uel raptor, spearhafoc. a 1300 Cursor M. 1789 Þe sparhauk flough be þe sterling. c 1374 Chaucer Troylus iii. 1192 What might or may the sely larke seie, Whanne that this sparhauk hath it in his foote? 1438 Bk. Alexander Grt. (Bann.) 12 It semis thay sparhalkis war & we lawrokis that durst bot dar. 1483 Caxton Cato h vj b, It is sayd in a comyn prouerbe that crafte is better than the Sparhawke. 1560 Rolland Seven Sages 28 The Sparhalk is als swyft of flicht As the Griffoun. 1598 Bp. Hall Sat. iv. iv. 88 Gallio may..tend his spar-hauke mantling in her mew. 1639 Massinger Unnatural Combat v. i, How her heart beats! Much like a partridge in a sparhawk's foot. 1661 J. Childrey Brit. Bacon. 13 Sparhawks, the most useless of Hawks. 1700 Tyrrell Hist. Eng. II. 820 The Ayries of Hawks, of Spar-Hawks. 1842 Tennyson Sir Launcelot & Q. Guinevere ii, Sometimes the sparhawk wheel'd along. 1865 Kingsley Herew. iv, In the first [copse] there built an eagle, in the second there built a sparhawk. 1891 ‘Son of Marshes’ Surrey Hills (1894) 44 Spar'hawk, the woodmen call him. |
| β 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. vi. 199 What pieres preyed hem to do as prest as a sperhauke. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) I. 335 Þere is grete plente of..sperhaukes. 1456 Sir G. Haye Law Arms (S.T.S.) 299 That he be lord of his subjectis, as to the quaile the sper-hauk. c 1489 Caxton Sonnes of Aymon vi. 152 The kyng gaaf to hym a sper⁓hawke. 1539 Fitzherb. Survey. xi. 26 Except it be an entiere rent, as a sperhauke or a hors. 1555 Eden Decades (Arb.) 300 Haukes, as faulcons, gerfalcons, lanners, and sperhaukes. 1602 L. Lloyd Briefe Conf. Divers Lawes 32 The feather of a sperhawke in their caps. |
| γ a 1400 Mandeville (1839) xxii. 238 Gerfacouns, Spare⁓haukes, Faukons gentyls. 1486 Bk. St. Albans c viij b, She may be also callid a spare hawke for .ij. Resones, oon is she sparith goshawkys and tercellys both. 1550 J. Coke Eng. & Fr. Heralds §8 (1877) 60 Also we have hawkes of the towre,..lykewyse goshawkes, and sparehawkes for ladyes. 1587 Golding De Mornay xxvi. (1592) 416 The Woolfe, the Foxe,..the Sparehauke, the Kyte & so foorth. 1612 Shuttleworths' Acc. (Chetham Soc.) 201 Foure spare⁓haucke hoodes, xij{supd}. 1890 J. Watson Nat. & Woodcraft viii, The Gamekeeper..will record a black and bloody list of depredations against the ‘spare’-hawk. |
| δ 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xii. iv. (Bodl. MS.), Hereby it semeþ þ{supt} alietus and a litel sperehauke is all one. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 468/2 Sperehawke.., nisus. c 1500 Melusine xxiv. 175 His enemyes fled byfore hym as the partrych doth byfore the sperehauke. |