kestrel
/ˈkɛstɹəl/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.47 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
1
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Example Sentences
Etymology
From Middle English castrel (“staniel, bird of prey”), from Middle French cresserelle, crecerelle (“bird of prey”), usually assumed to be from crecelle (“rattle, wooden reel”) (modern crécelle), of obscure origin. Cognates possibly include: Medieval Latin clisterella f, French crécerelle f and cristel m, Neapolitan castariello m and crestariello m, all sharing the same meaning. Derivation from the assumed Vulgar Latin *crepicella, *crepitacillum, a diminutive of crepitāculum, from crepitāre (“to crackle”) is difficult to explain from a morphological point of view. Instead, possibly from a root *krek-, *krak- (“to crack, rattle, creak, emit a bird cry”), from Middle Dutch crāken (“to creak, crack”), from Old Dutch *krakōn (“to crack, creak, emit a cry”), from Proto-West Germanic *krakōn (“to emit a cry, shout”), from Proto-Indo-European *gerg- (“to shout”). Cognate with Old High German krahhōn (“to make a sound, crash”), Old English cracian (“to resound”), French craquer (“to emit a repeated cry, used of birds”). More at creak, crack.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Inflected Forms
Phrases
American kestrel
banded kestrel
common kestrel
Dickinson's kestrel
fox kestrel
greater kestrel
grey kestrel
lesser kestrel