Words are always taking flights of fancy

If you find yourself annoyed by the new idioms created during the Olympics, consider that some phrases completely acceptable to modern ears were once new coinages from falconry.

After more than two weeks of "medalling" and podiums, PBs and ORs, the London Olympic Games and the language they brought with them have finally and spectacularly drawn to a close.

An interesting side debate was played out throughout those 17 days of competition about the use of Olympic terms as verbs, although as Laura Collins noted in her piece about the subject, the Oxford English Dictionary's editor John Simpson is keen to bring the discussion to a close by reminding us that "if people are using the expression then it's out there as part of the language of today".

The point here is that language is a living thing and what sounded ridiculous yesterday may well be in common usage tomorrow. Was anything but a small bird "tweeting" ten years ago, for instance? Did you ever "friend" someone before Facebook came along?

How language moves and why certain phrases stay with us sprang to mind recently as thoughts moved slowly away from the glittering sporting fields of Britain and settled instead upon a soon-to-open festival a little closer to home.

Organised by the Emirates Falconers' Club and supported by Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority, the 10th annual Abu Dhabi International Hunting and Equestrian Exhibition (Adihex) will begin its four-day run at Adnec on September 5. And when it does it will bring with it terminology every bit as interesting as those recently "trending" Olympic expressions.

Adihex is a multifaceted show - part-sporting, part-cultural, part archery demonstrations, part artworks exhibition - but the star attractions are undoubtedly the falcons. Each one of the several dozen birds on display can and will change hands for many thousands of dirhams.

The falcon occupies a unique and important place in this nation's culture.

Indeed, this magnificent bird's image stares back at us from every single banknote currently in circulation and the Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital has facilities that are the envy of the rest of the world, but what may have escaped you is how many falconry terms have made their way into everyday use in the English language.

The popular history of falconry begins in medieval Europe, although there is evidence to suggest its earlier origins in both China and here on the Arabian Peninsula. In Europe it soon became the sport of kings, which goes some way to explaining the rest of a phrase that has long since disappeared from view: if a "kestrel [is] for a knave", literally a person of low social standing, then a falcon was likely to belong to a king and a saker (a Eurasian falcon) would be kept by a knight and so forth.

There is more: when was the last time you were "hoodwinked" by someone? Or were required to have a "chaperone"? Both words trace their roots to the sport and relate to the leather caps or literally the "little capes" falconers use to calm their birds.

Likewise, have you recently been at the "end of your tether" or awaiting the screening of some Olympic final or other with "bated breath"?

Naturally, there have also been slightly less glorious examples of falconry terminology crossing into popular culture: spare a thought for the Toyota Tercel, a boxy family saloon car produced by the Japanese car maker for a quarter of a century beginning in the late 1970s and named after the male hawk. Not even such a noble moniker or vaguely respectable sales figures could save this forgettable model from the scrap heap.

Enjoy Adihex when it arrives early next month and remember that a "fed up" falcon will not want to go hunting, while a fed up child will always want to go home to bed.