Etymologically
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chick

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 16 October 2026 at 14:48. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /t͡ʃɪk/[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English chike, a shortening of chiken, chicken,[2][3][4][5] which Hoad thinks lost its final n in southern dialects, where chick is sometimes singular and chicken plural.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A child: chike about 1330; a young bird, cheke, 1342;[3] and as a surname from 1214.[3] The OED dates the young fowl from about 1400.[6]

Semantic evolution

Applied to human offspring it often appears in alliteration with child,[2][6] and became a term of endearment.[2] The young bird still in the egg or just hatched is from 1601.[6] From about 1600 to 1900 chicken was sometimes taken as a plural of chick, like children.[2] As slang for a young woman it is recorded in American English in 1927, in Elmer Gantry,[2][3][6] supposedly from African-American speech, and was popularized by the Beatniks in the late 1950s.[2] A Digby chick was a small dried herring (1883).[6]

Timeline

  • c. 1330 – a child.[3]
  • 1342 – a young bird.[3]
  • 1601 – a newly hatched bird.[6]
  • 1927 – a young woman (slang).[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A young chicken, or the young of any bird.
  2. A child, or a term of endearment.
  3. (slang, sometimes offensive) A girl or young woman.

Word family

  • chickweed
  • dabchick

Usage notes

A separate chick, a screen-blind of split bamboo, is from Hindi, from Persian chiq (1698).[7][6] In Scots a chick was a tick or beat, as of a clock.[8]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)