J.A. Baker studied the biology and etymology of falcons

Baker took interest in the language of falconry and its history. At one point in the Peregrine he wondered whether the phrase taken by surprise came from hawking. He might well have been correct: many of these terms from falconry have crossed into everyday use and lost their hawking roots. ‘Disclosed’, for example, comes from an Old French word that described a hawk that just hatched. ‘Reclaim’, also from Old French, meant ‘to make a hawk tame, gentle, and familiar’, or to call it back to the glove. To ‘make a point’ in an argument, say, comes, too, from hunting: used of dogs but also of hawks, it describes the action when a hawk throws herself up into the air above the spot where her quarry has been driven into a covert.

Saunders, Hetty. My House of Sky: The life and work of J.A. Baker. Lower Dairy, Toller Fratrum, Dorset: Little Toller Books, 2017.

The falconry terms Baker studied aren’t obscure, or restrained to a specific discipline. Phrases like “Make a point” and words like “disclose” often appear in office conversations and emails. Considering how old falconry is, these could be considered the first sports cliches.