eyrie
Pluraleyries
- 1The nest of a bird of prey, such as an eagle.
The ospreys returned to the same eyrie at the top of the old Scots pine for the sixth year running.
Climbers were asked to keep off the crag while the falcons' eyrie held chicks.
Similarnest
Note
Falconry gave the word practical work: to take young birds, a falconer first had to reach the eyrie, and when it sat in a tree that meant climbing up and carrying the chicks home in a basket. The word came through Middle English eire from Old French aire, which already meant an eagle's nest; its source further back is uncertain. Eyrie is the British spelling.
- 2Any high and remote place that holds a commanding position over what lies below.
The general directed the battle from a hilltop eyrie overlooking the whole valley.
The novelist wrote in an attic eyrie with a view across the rooftops of Edinburgh.
Note
Borrowed from the raptor's nest, the word pictures a person perched apart and watching over everything below, which is why it suits a general's hilltop post or a writer's attic with a view. It flatters the place a little: an eyrie is remote and high but commanding, never merely out of the way.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English eire or aire, from Old French aire or Medieval Latin aeria. The Old French aire, meaning an eagle's nest, may come from Latin ager, or, less likely, may be related to the word's other senses, which go back to Latin ārea.