Talk:Shithawk

According to this report: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00yz3t2/Debating_Animals_Series_2_The_Kestrel_and_Red_Kite/, it should be the red kite. Chrisrus (talk) 06:44, 6 March 2011 (UTC)

Red Kite or Black Kite ?
Rod Liddle, the host of a BBC Radio 4 programme, Debating Animals Series 2 : The Kestrel and Red Kite asserts, without citing any evidence, that the Red Kite was historically known as the shitehawk, but there do not appear to be any reliable sources to back up this claim. On the other hand, the OED specifies that the term shitehawk is 20th century military slang for the Black Kite (see entry for shite-hawk if you have access): [deleted] Given that the OED is a far more reliable source than a radio presenter, I am changing this redirect from Red Kite to Black Kite. BabelStone (talk) 19:37, 7 October 2011 (UTC)
 * That's quite a few species that the OED mentions. Is a disambiguation page, then? Chrisrus (talk) 19:44, 7 October 2011 (UTC)
 * If you like. BabelStone (talk) 19:48, 7 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Do we have a primary, Black Kite? From my reading of this entry, thank you, it seems like an informal term for any such bird, so given the report, should the red one be included? Chrisrus (talk) 19:53, 7 October 2011 (UTC)
 * I'm open to evidence that shows that "shitehawk" also refers to the Red Hawk, but I haven't been able to find any yet. As the OED says, the Black Kite seems to be the main focus of the term.  For example, [Birds Britannica] page 117 states: "Black Kites, M. migrans, scavengers familiar in many European cities and infamous to British servicemen posted to Egypt or India as the 'shite-hawk' (for its coprophagous habit). ... The red kite never suffered the indignity of its relative's nickname, but it was well known for many centuries as the 'glede' or 'glead' (from a Saxon word for 'glide')." BabelStone (talk) 20:05, 7 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Ok, then, I was misinformed.  Thanks for setting me straight. Chrisrus (talk) 04:50, 8 October 2011 (UTC)

What should happen when someone searches for "shithawk/shitehawk"
So, the redirect goes only to black kite, and not to all the other birds that the OED mentions in a disambiguation page? Or maybe we use the OED to improve the Wiktionary entry and link shite-hawk to that? Sometimes Wikipedia has a short article on polysemic words because if they are best explained in a short stubbish article/disambiguation page hybred rather than a wiktionary entry. Just imagine a user comes along and types "s-h-i-t-h-a-w-k" or the other spellings into that search window over there. What should happen? What should the user be told, and how? If it goes to "black kite" and the term does not appear, could s/he be perplexed? I don't think the term appears anywhere there. What is the best way to serve the user? Chrisrus (talk) 01:38, 8 October 2011 (UTC)


 * I was actually thinking that a small article rather than a redirect or a dab page would be the best solution, for the reasons that you give, so go ahead and write the article if you wish. BabelStone (talk) 08:22, 8 October 2011 (UTC)
 * I agree. Unless,... should we write and link to a new subsection for the black kite article?  That idea seems to have it's merrits also. Chrisrus (talk) 15:44, 8 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Given that the term may be used for other birds, and also for other things, I think that a separate article is best. BabelStone (talk) 12:56, 9 October 2011 (UTC)
 * I have created the article at Shite-hawk as this is the spelling used in the OED, and the most common spelling in other sources. Please feel free to expand and improve. BabelStone (talk) 14:23, 9 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Great job! I will have a look at it with an eye to contributing something, but it looks basically all there. Chrisrus (talk) 17:14, 9 October 2011 (UTC)

Imagining an article about shithawks. Please feel free to edit. Be Bold!
Dear Reader: The words "Shithawk" and "shit-hawk" were orignally "shitehawk" or "shite-hawk" is slang term first used by sailors from the british isles to refer to the black kite. It probably started as a play on the term "kite hawk" and was black kite and referred to that birds habbit at the time of eating poo. It later came to be used for the any bird a sailor or soldier might care to curse, quite commonly herring gulls or vultures. One observer at the time noted that it became very popular among british sailors, who commonly applied it to all birds. A 1848 dictionary of soldier slang heard it used for any large bird of prey, but often to the eagle on the uniforms of the 4th Indian Division which designated qualfied pathfinders. Another observed that the term had replaced the previous term for the black kite, "the kite hawk", and that carrion eaters were compared to flies. Experts noted the term was not proper, and promoted "black kite" instead, but noted that British Soldiers hated the cleaver birds steal their food and did not mention eating shit and dead bodies.

categories: British slang, Irish slang, military slang, insults, birds, animals considered vermin