Eyas

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A young hawk or falcon taken from the nest before it can fly ; a nestling bird that has not yet grown its flight feathers
2. An unfledged young hawk, especially one reared by hand for falconry ; a baby bird still being fed in the nest before it learns to fly
3. A hawk or falcon chick removed from its nest while still unable to fly ; any young bird not yet ready to leave the nest

Etymology: The most surprising thing about "eyas" is that its initial "e" was never part of the word. It began as "a nyas," a phrase that English speakers misheard and split apart. In the Middle Ages, the word for a young hawk taken from the nest was "nias" or "nyas," borrowed from Old French "niais," meaning a simple or inexperienced creature, which the French in turn applied to nestlings that had not yet learned to fly. Over time, speakers heard "a nyas" as "an eyas," moving the sound across the word boundary. The article "a" was reinterpreted as "an" before a vowel, and the "n" attached itself to the article instead of the noun. This process, called rebracketing, produced the form that survives today, leaving the older "nyas" behind as a fossil of the original phrase.

Synonyms: nestling, fledgling

Antonyms: adult