Etymologically
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poultry

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈpɒltɹi/, /ˈpəʊltɹi/[1]
  • US: /ˈpoʊltɹi/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English pultrie, also poultre and pulletrie,[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman poletrie, also pulletrie and pultrie,[4][5] and Middle French poulleterie of Normandy,[4] recorded as Old French pouletrie (“domestic fowl”) in 1280.[4][6][3] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from about 1275.[5] Most dictionaries derive it from pouletier (“poultry dealer”),[6][3][7][8][9] the OED from the Anglo-Norman form of that word, poleter, with the suffix -erie.[4] The dealer's name is formed on poulet (“young fowl, pullet”), the source of pullet,[6][3][7][10] a diminutive of poule (“hen”), which goes back through Vulgar Latin *pulla to Latin pullus (“young animal, young horse, young chicken”).[10] Etymonline traces the Latin word to Proto-Indo-European *pau- (“few, little”).[6] Compare Medieval Latin pultria, domestic fowl, recorded in British sources from 1252.[4][6][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A market where domestic fowl were sold: Barnhart and Etymonline find pultry in this sense in the mid 14th century, Barnhart in 1345–46.[3][6] The OED's first record is of domestic fowl collectively, before 1387 in Trevisa's translation of Higden's Polychronicon, and it dates the market sense only from 1423, in the name of a London street.[4]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word also meant the office of the poulter, the household officer who bought fowl and other provisions (1454–1601), and a place where fowl were reared (1429–1740).[4][9] Chaucer used it of the fowl in a reeve's charge, beside sheep, cattle and pigs, in the Canterbury Tales.[9][3][2] Its link with the poulterer's trade survives in the street called the Poultry in London.[9][4][6] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as domestic fowls.[11] In 17th-century slang, playing on the sense, poultry meant prostitutes (1608, in Dekker) and women in general (1611, in Chapman).[12]

Timeline

  • c. 1275 – Anglo-Norman pulletrie, poultry, henhouse.[5]
  • 1280 – Old French pouletrie, domestic fowl.[4]
  • 1345–46 – pultry, a market where domestic fowl are sold.[3]
  • before 1387 – domestic fowl collectively.[4][3]
  • 1423 – a place where fowl are sold, in the name of a London street.[4]
  • 1429 – a place where fowl are reared (obsolete by 1740).[4]
  • 1454 – the office of poulter (obsolete by 1601).[4]
  • 1608 – slang, prostitutes.[12]
  • 1611 – slang, women in general.[12]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Domestic fowl kept for their eggs or meat, such as chickens, turkeys, ducks and geese, usually treated as plural: The farm keeps poultry as well as dairy cows.[13][8][4][14]
  2. (obsolete, 1429–1740) A place where fowl are reared; a poultry yard.[4][14]

Word family

  • poultryless
  • poultrylike
  • poultryman
  • poult
  • poulterer
  • pullet
  • pullulate
  • pony
  • foal

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  8. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  9. ^ a b c d Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  10. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  12. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  13. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  14. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press