mews: [14] In former times, a mew was a place where trained falcons were kept (etymologically the word means ‘moulting-place’; it came from Old French mue, a derivative of muer ‘moult’, which was descended from Latin mūtāre ‘change’). In the latter part of the 14th century the Royal Mews were built in London on the site of what is now Trafalgar Square, to house the royal hawks.
By Henry VII’s time they were being used as stables, and from at least the early 17th century the term mews was used for ‘stabling around an open yard’. The modern application to a ‘street of former stables converted to human dwellings’ dates from the early 19th century. => moult, mutate
