Heronsew

Alternative forms

• hernshaw, herneshaw obsolete
• heronshaw
• heronshew

Origin

From Old French heronceau, diminutive of heron.

Full definition of heronsew

Noun

1. (now dialectal) A heron (originally specifically when small or young).
• c. 1390, Geoffrey Chaucer, ‘The Squire's Tale’, Canterbury Tales:I wol nat tellen
  of hir strange sewes
  Ne of hir swannes
  nor of hire heronsewes ….
• 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VI.7:As when a cast of Faulcons make their flight
  At an Herneshaw, that lyes aloft on wing ….
• 1805, Walter Scott, The Lay of the Last Minstrel: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 ….

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