Meaning
Someone who favors starting or escalating a war rather than pursuing diplomacy; the opposite of a dove. In US history the capitalized War Hawks name the young congressmen of 1810-1812, led by Speaker Henry Clay, who pushed the United States into the War of 1812 with Britain. Today plain hawk attaches to any advocate of force - or, figuratively, of budget discipline (deficit hawk). Usually shortened to plain hawk in modern headlines; the solid warhawk is common in journalism but dictionaries prefer two words. Do not confuse with chickenhawk, a separate later coinage for a hawk who avoided military service. Dove is the standard antonym. Regional use: United States origin; now used internationally.
Origin
The OED's earliest evidence for war hawk is 1798, in the writing of Thomas Jefferson, and Merriam-Webster likewise gives a first known use of 1798, defining the historical sense as 'a jingoistic American favoring war with Britain around 1812'. Wikipedia, citing Donald R. Hickey's 2014 Journal of Military History study of the phrase, dates the coinage to 1792 and records 129 uses in American newspapers before late 1811 - mostly Federalists attacking Democratic-Republicans, though the antiwar Republican John Randolph of Roanoke used it too. The capitalized War Hawks are a loosely defined one to two dozen members of the 12th Congress (1810-1812) - Speaker Henry Clay their 'guiding spirit', alongside John C. Calhoun and Felix Grundy - who pushed Madison to the June 1812 declaration of war. The hawk-versus-dove framing later generalized the word and spawned offshoots such as chicken hawk and deficit hawk.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- chickenhawk
- deficit hawk
- warhawk
Usage Examples
- Once a reliable war hawk, the senator now cautions against intervention every time the missiles fly.
- The war hawks in the cabinet dismissed the envoy's peace plan as appeasement.
- Columnists branded him a deficit hawk at home and a war hawk abroad.