Saturday, September 4, 2010

Peregrine



Peregrine was the first name of a female contestant on the truly excruciating Bravo reality show Work of Art. She was a hippie, or her parents were, and thus I presume she was named for the bird. Compare, for instance, Falcon, the first name of the Balloon Boy (puzzling, however, are his brothers' names, Bradford and Ryo). Traditionally, though, Peregrine is a masculine name—meaning traveler, and borne, as if a cross, by several saints.

Since I'm on the topic (of raptors), I learned not too long ago—though perhaps falsely—that Fawkes, as in Guy, means hawk, or something of the sort—but sort of similar to falcon, in its way. Yet the etymology of hawk is distinct from that of falcon, to wit:

Middle English hauk, from Old English hafoc; akin to Old High German habuh hawk, Russian kobets a falcon

vs.

Middle English faucoun, falcon, from Anglo-French faucon, from Late Latin falcon-, falco, probably from Latin falc-, falx...

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