heron, hern
(ˈhɛrən, hɜːn)
Forms: α. 4 heiroun, 4–5 heroun, 4–6 heyron, -one, -oun, -un(e, (5 haron), 6 heeron, (herron), 6–7 hearon, 4– heron. β. 4–7 herne, (5 heern), 5–7 hearne, 7 hearn, 5– hern.
[ME. heiroun, heyron, a. OF. hairon (12th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), mod.F. héron = Pr. aigron, Fr. dial. égron, Sp. airon, It. aghirone:—late pop.L. *hāgirōn-em, deriv. of *hāgir-us (Sp. agro), ad. OHG. *haiger, heiger a heron.
The form hern is archaic, poet., and dial.; but the word is often so pronounced, even when spelt heron.
A diminutive from the Romanic form appears in F. aigrette. OHG. heiger appears to be a by-form of *hreiger (MHG. reiger, Ger. reiher, MDu. reigher, Du. reiger) cogn. with OE. hrágra (:—*hraigron-), heron.]
1. a. The name of a large natural group of long-necked long-legged wading birds, belonging to the genus Ardea or family Ardeidæ; especially and primarily, the Common or Grey Heron of Europe, A. cinerea.
| α 1302 Regist. Whethamstede (Rolls) II. App. D. 330 [Pro] heyruns et botors..xxii.s. 1340 Ayenb. 193 Me ret of þe heyrone þet he draȝþ uorþ his uader and his moder huanne hi byeþ ealde. c 1386 Chaucer Frankl. T. 469 Thise ffauconers..That with hir haukes han the heron [v.rr. heyroun, herowne, heroun] slayn. c 1420 Liber Cocorum (1862) 29 Þo heroun is rosted..And eton with gynger as his kynde is. 14.. Nom. in Wr.-Wülcker 702/33 Hec ardia, a haron. 1523 Ld. Berners Froiss. I. ccccvi. (R.), They toke their horses..and went into the feldes and founde plentie of heerons to flye at. 1549 Compl. Scot. vi. 39 The herrons gaif ane vyild skrech. 1555 Eden Decades To Rdr. (Arb.) 53 Isopes frogges to whom..Iupiter sent a hearon to picke them in the hedes. 1666 J. Davies Hist. Caribby Isls 87 A kind of Herons of an admirable whiteness, about the bigness of a Pigeon. 1789 Wordsw. Even. Walk 285 And heron, as resounds the trodden shore, Shoots upward, darting his long neck before. 1839 Stonehouse Axholme 65 The common heron may still be seen standing motionless, near ditches and pools of water. |
| β 13.. Coer de L. 2272 The pavylon with the golden herne. c 1440 Anc. Cookery in Househ. Ord. (1790) 439 Craunes and Herns shall be armed with larde. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 237/1 Heern, byrde [v. rr. heryn, herne], ardea. 1530 Palsgr. 231/1 Herne a foule, heron. 1604 Drayton Owle 71 The Herne, by soaring shewes tempestuous showres. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. iii. iii. ii. i. (1651) 609 As an Hearn when she fishes, still and prying on all sides. 1726–46 Thomson Winter 146 Loud shrieks the soaring hern. 1850 Tennyson In Mem. ci, The brook shall babble down the plain..And flood the haunts of hern and crake. 1855 ― Brook 23, I come from haunts of coot and hern. |
b. With defining epithet, applied to other species of the genus
Ardea and allied genera.
| 1577 Holinshed Chron., Scot. vi. (1808) V. 10 A great store of soland geese (not vnlike to those which Plinie calleth water eagles, or (as we saie) sea herons). 1611 Cotgr., Aigrette, a fowle very like a Heron, but White; a criell Heron, or dwarfe Heron. 1624 Capt. Smith Virginia v. 171 Many sorts of Fowles, as the gray and white Hearne. 1678 Ray Willughby's Ornith. 279 Lesser Ash-coloured Heron. A name for Night Heron, Nycticorax Gardeni. 1839 Stonehouse Axholme 65 The egret and the night heron are, I believe, entirely extinct. 1845 Yarrell Hist. Birds (ed. 2) II. 519 The Great White Heron (Ardea alba) can only be considered as an accidental visiter. Ibid. 531 The Squacco Heron feeds on small fishes, mollusca, and insects. 1893 Newton Dict. Birds 416 Schlegel retained all in the genus Ardea, dividing it into eight sections, the names of which may perhaps be Englished—Great Herons, Small Herons, Egrets, Semi-egrets, Rail-like Herons, Little Bitterns, Bitterns, and Night-Herons. Ibid. 418 Large as is the common Heron of Europe, it is exceeded in size by the Great Blue Heron of America, Ardea herodias..The Purple Heron, A. purpurea, as a well-known European species..also deserves mention here. Ibid. 419 note, Ardea ralloides..is the ‘Squacco-Heron’ of modern British authors—the distinctive name, given ‘Sguacco’ by Willughby and Ray from Aldrovandus, having been misspelt by Latham. |
2. attrib. and
Comb., as
heron-crest,
heron-pie,
heron-plume;
heron- (hern-)hawking;
heron-billed,
heron-built,
heron-feathered,
heron-haunted,
heron-like,
heron-topped adjs.; also
heron-bluter,
Sc. name of the snipe (
Jam.);
heron- (hern-)dog, a dog used in heron-hawking.
| 1932 W. B. Yeats Words for Music 12 The *heron-billed pale Cattle-birds. |
| 1851 H. Melville Moby Dick III. xxii. 153 Tall, *heron-built captains. |
| 1817 Moore Lalla R., Veiled Proph. iii, Chiefs of th' Uzbek race, Waving their *heron crests with martial grace. |
| a 1613 Overbury Newes, Countrey Newes Wks. (1856) 174 That a courtier never attaines his selfe-knowledge, but by report. That his best embleme is a *hearne-dog. |
| 1935 C. Day Lewis Time to Dance 21 The *heron-feathered sky. |
| 1903 Daily Chron. 10 Dec. 3/2 It [sc. a mist]..hid all the *heron-haunted flats and marshes. |
| 1709 Lond. Gaz. No. 4539/1 Their Majesties came to this Place, to see the Diversion of *Hern-hawking. 1766 Pennant Zool. (1776) I. 422 Heron-hawking being so favourite a diversion of our ancestors. |
| 1611 Cotgr., Haironnier, of or belonging to, a heron; also, *heron-like. 1895 Pop. Sci. Monthly Apr. 772 These heronlike falcons are distributed over the greater part of Africa. |
| 1723 J. Nott Cook's & Confect. Dict. 32 H, To make a *Hern Pye. 1963 V. Cronin Comp. Guide Paris iv. 67 Where else but in Paris would a king raise a restaurateur to the nobility simply because he enjoyed his heron-pies? |
| 1808 Scott Marm. iv. vii, His cap..was graced With the proud *heron-plume. |