heronsew
English
Alternative forms
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).
- 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 […].