backworm

English

Etymology

From back +‎ worm.

Noun

backworm (plural backworms)

1. (obsolete) The thread-like worm found in filanders, the disease of hawks; or the disease itself.
   • August 1593, Walter Raleigh, letter‎:

     The Indian falcon is sick of the backworm

   • 1735, The Sportsmen's Dictionary, London: Printed for C. Hitch, at the Red Lion, and C. Davis, both in Pater-Noster-Row; and S. Austen, at the Angel and Bible in St. Paul's Church-Yard:

     The backworm is rarely quite killed […] .

   • 1964, Thomas Browne, “Of Hawks and Falconry, ancient and modern”, in Geoffrey Keynes, editor, The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, volume 3, London: Faber and Faber, page 62:

     [... T]his, if any, may probably destroy that obstinate Disease of the Filander or Backworm.

References

• “backworm”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.