Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Variant of tercel.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. See tercel, tercelet.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Falconry) The male of various falcons, esp. of the peregrine; also, the male of the goshawk.
WordNet 3.0
- n. male hawk especially male peregrine or gyrfalcon
Etymologies
- From Middle 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. (Wiktionary)
Examples
““Báz” (here Richardson is wrong s.v.); a term to a certain extent generic, but specially used for the noble Peregrine (F. Peregrinator) whose tiercel is the”
“I spend way too much time doing physical conditioning with my tiercel goshawk, but the result is a bird that knows it can smoke any quarry he's programmed to chase.”
“My Gyr- Prairie tiercel was stolen this spring and so far possible replacements have fallen through partially because breeders failed, partly because of penury.”
“Back in 2002 I imprinted my tiercel gos on the 8th floor of the Wachovia bank building in the uptown area of Albuquerque.”
“Ince flies a mature tiercel male peregrine successfully at snipe, dove and quail, some of the toughest quarries any trained falcon catches.”
“He said a message took three pigeons because of the ubiquitous Peregrines there: "One for the falcon, one for the tiercel, and one for the film".”
“A few years back, a friend of mine's tiercel Peregrine died from a yellowjacket sting to the face.”
“He was wrapped in a towel on my lap -- the towel slipped and his tiny tiercel foot was suddenly embedded in the meaty part of my thigh... can an eagle take down a wolf?”
“Picturing his room, picturing sitting beside him, she remembered the tiercel—the male falcon—lording about on the window ledge.”
“The tiercel, he remembered Percey Clay telling him.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘tiercel’.
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WWF WTF?
Ever play "Words With Friends" with someone and they throw down some strange, unlikely group of letters that makes even the most mild and squeaky clean tongued person say "whiskey tango foxtrot"? ...
oorie, sangar, merl, cwm, doum, weir, jura, invar, lawine, tapa, waw, shog and 376 more...
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birds
birds with singular names from
at least 9 English dictionariesaasvogel, aberdevine, accentor, accipiter, aepyornis, agami, albatross, alcatras, alcid, alcidine, amadavat, amokura and 1056 more...
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Falconry
falconry, Falconry, falcon, austringer, bangle, bate, hood, tirret, bal-chatri trap, falconer, shikra trap, the falcon cannot... and 60 more...
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Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue's Capitol
vestibule, foyer, mosaic, tessera, tower, elevator, observation deck, rotunda, guilloche, unicameral, legislature, supreme court and 81 more...
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The Aubrey/Maturin List I'm Gonna Mak...
I'm wading through Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels one by one, and someday, I'll wade through them again and list all the words I learned while reading them.
Edit: I started ma...studdingsail, carronade, mumchance, grumlin-futtocks, crosscat-harpings, holystone, sennit, orlop, orchitis, negus, kevel, altumal and 1112 more...
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Clearinghouse
For stuff to simply reside.
calcar, pinion, espadrille, antipodes, peregrine, cormorant, tanager, vireo, farrago, undervest, passerine, oscine and 881 more...
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Exquisite.
Words to my liking. (The most lovelybeautifulintricatecondecendinggratuitous.)
unequivocally, destitute, prudent, sagacious, circumspect, discreet, rash, forethought, evince, judicious, shrewd, extravagant and 227 more...
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aerial
aerial, tiercel, avocet, jetstream, deneb, cumulus, cygnus, albireo, buteo buteo, raven, mirage, eclipse and 36 more...
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Conference of the Birds
I like bird names, raptors in particular. That's all.
raptor, eagle, gyrfalcon, gyrkin, haggard, harrier, falcon, peregrine, hawk, lammergeier, kite, kestrel and 30 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for tiercel.

reesetee Haha! Congratulations!
That's because it describes only the male. I haven't gotten quite that specific yet.
Hmm.... :-) Mar 10, 2008
chained_bear "'I believe so,' said Martin, shading his eye. 'A tiercel. Lewin says they occur in New Holland.'"
--Patrick O'Brian, The Nutmeg of Consolation, 352
And may I add with what I hope is evident delight, "Oh my GOD, I found a bird that reesetee hasn't already listed!!!!" Mar 8, 2008