Etymology

Noun

1. Any large falcon, especially as used to fly at herons.
2. A large bird of prey that breeds on Arctic coasts and islands of North America, Europe and Asia.
   • 2007, Michael Chabon, Gentlemen of the Road, Sceptre 2008, p. 132:

     [...] the usurper Buljan ordered that his sukkah be erected on the donjon's roof, with its [...] relative nearness to the stars, among which his sky-worshiping and uncircumcised ancestors still hunted with infallible gyrfalcons for celestial game.