tiercel
/ˈtɜː(ɹ)səl/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "In this wise, the glossy bright-eyed kestrel, whom tiercels’ training could not reclaim, shook off silver bells, and velvet hood, and broidered jesses; and fled away—to consort, henceforward for evermore, with gleds, and hawks, and such birds of prey as make their nests deep in Bohemian forests, or in the desolate places of the Wilderness that girdles the frontier of the reputable world."
- "He is a tiercel, lean and long and supple-winged, the first of the year."
Etymology
From Middle English tercel, from Old French terçuel, from Late Latin tertiolus, the diminutive of Latin tertius (“third”). Sources disagree whether the connection is that the males of most species of birds of prey favoured in falconry are smaller than the females by about a third, or whether it refers to the supposition that only one egg in three yields a male.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Inflected Forms
tiercels (plural)
tercel (alternative)
terzel (alternative)
tassel (alternative)
tassell (alternative)
tarcel (alternative)
tarsel (alternative)
tarsell (alternative)
tyercel (alternative)
tyercle (alternative)