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)

(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

nowheres

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