An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Falke

by Friedrich Kluge

Falke, masculine, ‘falcon, hawk,’ from the equivalent Middle High German valke, Old High German falcho, masculine (in Upper German still written Falch). In the other Teutonic languages the word does not appear till late in the Middle Ayes (Old Icelandic falke, English falcon, Dutch valk), yet Falco already existed in Lombardicic proper names (compare also Anglo-Saxon Wester-falcna). Among the Anglo-Saxons the falcon was called wealhheafoc, ‘Welsh hawk’; Old Icelandic valr, ‘falcon,’ is properly ‘the Kelic (bird)’; compare Walnuß, welsch. Hence it is possible that Old High German falcho originated in the tribal name Volcae, ‘Kelts’; *volcon- may have become falkon-, and the Romance cognates (Italian falcone, French faucon) borrowed from it. But it is also possible that the word is connected with the cognates of fahl (Upper German falch, ‘a fawn-coloured cow’); hence Falke, ‘a fawn-coloured (bird)’?. If, on the other hand, the word originated in the Latin-Romance cognates (Latin falco is recorded in the 4th century), we must base it on the Latin falx, ‘sickle’; falco, literally ‘sickle-bearer’ (on account of its hooked claws?).