Eorn

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An archaic English word for a large bird of prey, the eagle, once used in older poetry and writing
2. A dated term from Old English referring to the eagle, a powerful bird of prey with a hooked beak
3. An obsolete name for the eagle, a large, sharp-eyed raptor that appears in early English texts

Etymology: In Old English, an "eorn" was a dwelling, a house or a building, and the word appears in a small number of surviving texts. Its meaning was close to that of a home or shelter rather than a grand hall, though the exact range of use is hard to pin down from so few examples. The word did not last in standard English. It faded from common use during the Middle English period, and its traces are mostly limited to old writing and regional speech. Readers sometimes confuse it with "earn," the Old English word for eagle, which was a different word, though the two sounds were close enough that scribes and later readers could blur them.