> gyrfalcon
< Old French gerfaucon, also gerfauc (modern French gerfaut) = Provençal girfalc-s, Spanish gerifalte, Portuguese gerifalte, Italian girfalco, girifalco, medieval Latin gero-, giro-, gire-, gyrofalco, Middle High German gir-, gervalke (modern German gier-, geier-, gerfalke), Dutch giervalk, Old Norse geirfálki.
A compound of the word which appears in English as falcon n.; the origin of the first element is disputed, but the prevailing view both among Germanic and Romanic philologists now is that, while the recorded forms in the Germanic languages are adopted < French, the ultim…