Etymology

sparrowhawk

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Today it means: A Eurasian sparrowhawk, Accipiter nisus, a small, short-winged European hawk that preys on smaller birds. Full definition →

Middle English sparhauk ← Old English spearhafoc ← Proto-West Germanic *sparwahabuk
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The story

  1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*sparwahabukaz
  2. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*sparwahabuk
  3. Old English · inherited fromspearhafoc
  4. Middle English · inherited fromsparhauk
  5. English todaysparrowhawk

From Middle English sparhauk, sperhauk, from Old English spearhafoc, spearhabuc (“sparrow-hawk”), from Proto-West Germanic *sparwahabuk, from Proto-Germanic *sparwahabukaz, equivalent to sparrow + hawk. Cognate with Danish spurvehøg (“sparrowhawk”), Swedish sparvhök (“sparrowhawk”), Icelandic sparrhaukur (“sparrowhawk”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.