kestrel

English

A common kestrel.

Wikispecies

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 origen.

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, from Proto-Germanic *krakōną (“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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɛstɹəl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛstɹəl

Noun

kestrel (plural kestrels)

1. Any of various small falcons of the genus Falco that hover while hunting.
   • 1878, Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native, book 3 chapter 6:

     When she was musing she was a kestrel, which hangs in the air by an invisible motion of its wings.

   • 1917, John Masefield, Up on the Downs:

     Up on the downs the red-eyed kestrels hover,
     Eyeing the grass.
     The field mouse flits like a shadow into cover
     As their shadows pass.

2. The common kestrel, Falco tinnunculus.

Synonyms

• (common kestrel): windhover, staniel

Derived terms

• American kestrel (Falco sparverius)
• banded kestrel (Falco zoniventris)
• common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus)
• Dickinson's kestrel (Falco dickinsoni)
• fox kestrel (Falco alopex)
• greater kestrel (Falco rupicoloides)
• grey kestrel (Falco ardosiaceus)
• lesser kestrel (Falco naumanni)
• Malagasy kestrel (Falco newtoni)
• Mauritius kestrel (Falco punctatus)
• Nankeen kestrel (Falco cenchroides)
• Seychelles kestrel (Falco araeus)
• spotted kestrel (Falco moluccensis)

 

Translations

any small falcon of genus Falco

• Afrikaans: valk
• Breton: falc'hun
• Bulgarian: сокол (bg) m (sokol)
• Catalan: falcó (ca) m
• Czech: poštolka (cs) f
• Danish: falk (da) c
• Dutch: valk (nl) m
• Esperanto: falko
• Faroese: falkur m, smyril m
• Finnish: jalohaukka (fi), haukka (fi)
• French: crécerelle (fr) f, cristel (fr) m
• Friulian: falcon m
• Galician: falcón m, tartaraña f
• German: Falke (de) m
• Greek: κιρκινέζι (el) n (kirkinézi)

  Ancient: κέρχνη f (kérkhnē)

• Hungarian: vércse (hu)
• Icelandic: fálki (is) m, haukur (is), valur (is)
• Ido: falkono (io)
• Irish: pocaire gaoithe (ga) m
• Italian: falco (it) m, falcone (it) m, falchetto m
• Kashmiri: بٕہٕر (bụhụr), بٕۂر (bụhạr)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: شاھین (shAheen)

• Ladin: falcon m
• Latin: falco m
• Low German: Falk m
• Lower Sorbian: sokoł m
• Luxembourgish: Kréchel
• Macedonian: сокол (mk) m (sokol)
• Mudburra: dirdila
• Neapolitan: castariello m, crestariello m
• Norwegian: falk (no), hauk (no)
• Polish: sokół (pl) m
• Portuguese: falcão (pt) m
• Romani: falkono m
• Romansch: creivel, falcun
• Russian: пустельга́ (ru) (pustelʹgá)
• Scottish Gaelic: speireag ruadh f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: соко m (Bosnia, Serbia), сокол m (Croatia)

  Roman: soko (sh) m (Bosnia, Serbia), sokol (sh) m (Croatia)

• Slovak: sokol (sk) m
• Slovene: sokol (sl) f
• Spanish: cernícalo (es) m
• Swedish: falk (sv) c
• Turkish: kerkenez (tr)
• Ukrainian: сокіл m (sokil), сапсан m (sapsan)
• Upper Sorbian: sokoł m
• Welsh: cudyll m, cudyllod m pl
• West Frisian: falk m

Falco tinnunculus

• Arabic:

  Moroccan Arabic: بوعميرة (boʕemira)

• Asturian: peñerina (ast), aviquina (ast), peñereru (ast)
• Belarusian: звычайнага пустальга (zvyčajnaha pustalʹha)
• Breton: falc’hun logotaer
• Bulgarian: черношипа ветрушка (černošipa vetruška), керкенез (bg) (kerkenez)
• Catalan: xoriguer (ca) m, xoriguer gros m, xoriguer comú m
• Chinese:

  Hokkien: 紅鷹 / 红鹰 (âng-eng), 茶隼 (tê-chún)

  Mandarin: 紅隼 / 红隼 (zh) (hóngzhǔn), 茶隼 (zh) (cházhǔn), 紅鷹 / 红鹰 (hóngyīng)

• Czech: poštolka obecná f
• Danish: tårnfalk (da)
• Dutch: torenvalk (nl) m
• Esperanto: turfalko, kestrelo
• Estonian: tuuletallaja
• Faroese: grýtissmyril m, tornfalkur m
• Finnish: tuulihaukka (fi)
• French: faucon crécerelle (fr) m, crécerelle (fr) f
• Galician: lagarteiro m, peneireiro m
• German: Turmfalke (de) m
• Greek: βραχοκιρκίνεζο n (vrachokirkínezo)

  Ancient Greek: κέρχνη f (kérkhnē)

• Hungarian: vörös vércse (hu)
• Icelandic: turnfálki (is)
• Irish: bod gaoithe (ga) m, bodaire gaoithe (ga) m, pocaire gaoithe (ga) m, pocaire gaoithe coiteann (ga) m, seabhac buí (ga) m, seabhac gaoithe (ga) m
• Italian: gheppio (it) m
• Japanese: 長元坊 (ja) (chougenbou)
• Korean: 황조롱이 (hwangjorong'i)
• Latin: tinnunculus m
• Latvian: lauku piekūns m, lauka piekūns m, peļu vanadziņš m
• Lithuanian: pelėsakalis (lt)
• Neapolitan: castariello m
• Norwegian: tårnfalk
• Persian: دلیجه (dalije)
• Polish: pustułka (pl) f
• Portuguese: peneireiro-vulgar m
• Romanian: vindereu (ro) m, vânturel (ro) m
• Romansch: (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan, Sutsilvan) crivel, (Surmiran) creivel m, (Vallader) cribel m, (Sursilvan) falcun m, (Surmiran) feila l'ora f, (Puter, Vallader) falcun brün m, (Puter, Vallader) filadè m, (Vallader) battalaura f
• Russian: пустельга́ обыкнове́нная f (pustelʹgá obyknovénnaja), пустельга́ (ru) f (pustelʹgá)
• Scottish Gaelic: clamhan ruadh m
• Slovak: sokol myšiar
• Slovene: navádna postôvka f
• Spanish: cernícalo común m
• Swedish: tornfalk (sv) c
• Telugu: నామవాచకం (nāmavācakaṁ)
• Turkish: bayağı kerkenez (tr)
• Ukrainian: боривітер (uk) (boryviter), постільга (postilʹha)
• Vietnamese: chim cắt (vi)
• Walloon: cressale (wa) f
• Welsh: cudyll coch
• West Frisian: reade wikel

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Albanian: ^{(please verify)} skifteri kthetrazi, ^{(please verify)} petriti
• Basque: ^{(please verify)} belatz gorri, ^{(please verify)} belatz handi
• Friulian: ^{(please verify)} falcuç di cjampanili
• Ladin: ^{(please verify)} filadressa
• Lithuanian: ^{(please verify)} sakalis (lt)
• Macedonian: ^{(please verify)} ветрушка (vetruška)
• Maltese: ^{(please verify)} spanjulett
• Norman: ^{(please verify)} êteurcélet m (Jersey)
• Occitan: ^{(please verify)} moisset ros (oc)
• Sardinian: ^{(please verify)} tzrepedderi, ^{(please verify)} spradderi
• Serbo-Croatian: ^{(please verify)} vjetruša (sh)
• Serbo-Croatian: ^{(please verify)} ветрушка/^{(please verify)} vetruška (sh)
• Turkish: ^{(please verify)} kerkenez (tr)
• Upper Sorbian: ^{(please verify)} wěžowy sokoł, ^{(please verify)} pustawa

Further reading

• kestrel on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• kestrel (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Terkels, Kestler, Sterkel, kelters, skelter