chicken

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈtʃɪk.ɪn/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English chiken, chikene,^[2][3] inherited from Old English ċīcen (“young of the domestic hen; young of any bird”),^[4][2] from Proto-Germanic *kiukinam,^[4][5] the source also of Dutch kieken, kuiken, German Küken and Old Norse kjúklingr,^[4][2] from an imitative root *keuk-, echoing the bird's sound and possibly also the root of cock, with a diminutive suffix.^[4][5][2] By regular sound changes it should have become modern *chichen; why it did not is unknown.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The young of the domestic fowl: Old English cicen about 950, in the Lindisfarne Gospels.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

By early Middle English it meant any chicken, of any age.^[4][2] Words for “chicken” in Indo-European languages usually extend words for “hen”, but sometimes, as in English and Latin pullus, words for the young.^[4] It was used disparagingly of people in Middle English from 1330,^[2] and of a child from before 1400.^[6] The adjectival sense “cowardly” may go back to the 14th century, with hen-herte, a chicken-hearted person, from the mid-15th century;^[4] “a coward” is from the 1610s,^[4][6] and the adjective as modern slang from 1941.^[7] The verb, “to back down through cowardice”, almost always with out, is American slang from 1943.^[4][2] Chicken pox is from 1727–38, in Chambers' Cyclopaedia.^[2] To count one's chickens before they hatch is from the 1570s,^[4] from Aesop's fable of the milkmaid,^[8] and chicken feed, a paltry sum, is American slang by 1897.^[4] The game of chicken, a test of courage, is recorded by 1953.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 950 – a young fowl.^[2][6]
• 1330 – disparaging, of people.^[2]
• 1570s – count one's chickens.^[4]
• 1610s – a coward.^[4]
• 1727 – chicken pox.^[2]
• 1897 – chicken feed.^[4]
• 1943 – verb, chicken out.^[4][2]
• 1953 – the game of chicken.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The common domestic fowl, or its young.
2. The flesh of this bird used as food.
3. (slang) A coward.
4. (slang) A dangerous contest in which the first to lose nerve and back out loses.

Adjective

1. (slang) Afraid; cowardly.

Verb

1. (slang) To lose one's nerve and back out, usually with out.

Related words

• chick
• cock
• chicken pox
• chickenhearted

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press