Windfuckers

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Small falcons of the genus Falco that hover motionless over open ground while hunting for prey
2. Birds of prey, a type of small kestrel known for hanging in the air against the wind while searching for mice
3. Kestrels, slender raptors that hold steady in mid-air by beating their wings rapidly to spot food below

Etymology: Windfucker is the name for the kestrel, a small hovering falcon, and its plural is "windfuckers." The word's origin is debated, and the most striking part is how many ways scholars have tried to explain it. One proposal treats it as a compound of "wind" and "fuck," where "fuck" meant "to strike" or "to thrust," a sense found in Swedish dialect "fokka" but lost in English. The bird's hovering, wind-driven flight would suit such a name. Another theory suggests it is an English dialect version of "windsucker," a close synonym that appears in older texts. In those texts it is printed with a long s, so some scholars think "windfucker" is a misreading of "windsucker," while others think "windsucker" is a polite alteration of "windfucker." The word's later vulgar meaning is probably unrelated to the bird. The Gerard Manley Hopkins poem "The Windhover" shows how this sense could make the bird's name awkward in polite company.