Dictionary

heronsew en · NOUN

Etymology

From Middle English heronsewe, from Old French haironcel, diminutive of heiron.

Meanings

1. (dialectal) A heron (originally specifically when small or young).
   • 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 […]. 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:
   • As when a cast of Faulcons make their flight / At an Herneshaw, that lyes aloft on wing […]. 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

Forms