falconry means the sport of hunting by using trained birds of prey, especially falcons and hawks. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why “falconry” is a great word
FALCONRY — [Noun] The art and practice of hunting with trained birds of prey, especially falcons and hawks. From the French fauconnerie, from faucon ("falcon"). Unlike the general pursuit of "hunting" (which employs weapons or traps) or the more specific "hawking" (which emphasizes the use of accipiters or an archaic register), falconry is a profound partnership, an ancient dialogue between human will and wild instinct. It is the silhouetted stillness of the falcon on the fist before the cast, the sudden, silent stoop from a thousand feet that ends in a puff of feathers, and the quiet, bloodied reward offered back to the glove—a covenant of trust written in hunger and reward, the oldest form of aviation conducted on a fragile thread.
Etymology
From French fauconnerie.
noun
- The sport of hunting by using trained birds of prey, especially falcons and hawks.“...looking up, I observed a very slight and graceful hawk, like a night-hawk, alternately soaring like a ripple and tumbling a rod or two over and over, showing the underside of its wings, which gleamed like a satin ribbon in the sun, or like the pearly inside of a shell. This sight reminded me of falconry and what nobleness and poetry are associated with that sport.”