falcō

Falcon comes from Late Latin falcō, probably from falx (sickle), referring to the curved shape of the bird's talons or beak. The word entered Old French as faucon and arrived in English by the 1200s. The peregrine falcon — peregrinus meaning 'wandering' — can dive at speeds exceeding 390 km/h (242 mph), making it the fastest animal on the planet. A bird named for a sickle holds the absolute speed record in the animal kingdom.

Falconry — the art of hunting with trained birds of prey — was practiced in Central Asia by at least 2000 BCE. It reached Europe through contact with the Islamic world during the Crusades, though some earlier evidence exists. Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, wrote De Arte Venandi cum Avibus (The Art of Hunting with Birds) around 1248, one of the most detailed medieval texts on any subject. Falconry was the sport of kings — literally. In medieval England, the type of hawk you could keep was determined by your social rank.

The social hierarchy of birds was codified in the Boke of St. Albans (1486): an eagle for the emperor, a peregrine for an earl, a goshawk for a yeoman, a sparrowhawk for a priest, a kestrel for a knave. The falcon was aristocratic by definition. Keeping the wrong bird for your station was a social violation. The bird's status reflected the owner's, and the word 'falcon' carried that weight.

Peregrine falcons nearly went extinct in the United States in the 1960s due to DDT pesticide thinning their eggshells. Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (1962) documented the crisis. DDT was banned in the US in 1972, and intensive breeding programs brought the peregrine back. By 1999, it was removed from the endangered species list. The bird named for a sickle — the tool that harvests — was itself nearly harvested by chemistry.