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).
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

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

   • 1805, Walter Scott, “(please specify the page)”, in The Lay of the Last Minstrel: A Poem, London: […] [James Ballantyne] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, […], and A[rchibald] Constable and Co., […], →OCLC:

     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