heronsew

heronsew

English

Alternative forms

• handsaw (obsolete)
• hernshaw, herneshaw (obsolete)
• heronshaw
• heronshew

Etymology

From Middle English heronsewe, from Old French haironcel, diminutive of heiron.

Noun

heronsew (plural heronsews)

1. (now dialectal) A heron (originally specifically when small or young).
   • c. 1390, Geoffrey Chaucer, ‘The Squire's Tale’, Canterbury Tales:

     I wol nat tellen / of hir strange sewes / Ne of hir swannes / nor of hire heronsewes […].

   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VI.7:

     As when a cast of Faulcons make their flight / At an Herneshaw, that lyes aloft on wing […].

   • 1805, Walter Scott, The Lay of the Last Minstrel:

     Pages, with ready blade, were there, / The mighty meal to carve and share: / O'er capon, heron-shew, and crane, / And princely peacock's gilded train […].

Anagrams

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