pullet

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English polet, also pulet and pullet,^[2][3] probably partly borrowed from Anglo-Norman pullet or poulet (“young chicken, young fowl”), which the Anglo-Norman record has from the 12th century, and partly borrowed from Anglo-Norman polette (“young hen, young fowl”), the feminine, recorded as polete in Old French from the late 12th century.^[4][5] Both are diminutives from Old French poule (“hen”),^[4][6][7][8] although the American Heritage Dictionary and Merriam-Webster Unabridged take the masculine from poul (“cock”).^[3][9] The French noun comes from Vulgar Latin *pulla,^[10][8] the feminine of Latin pullus (“young animal, foal, chicken”),^[6][7][8] from Proto-Indo-European *pau- (“few, little”).^[8][3] The Latin noun is the source of Spanish pollo (“chicken”) and Italian pollo (“fowl”),^[8] and Medieval Latin in Britain had pulletus from about 1284.^[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A young chicken or hen: in Langland's Piers Plowman, in a manuscript of about 1400 of a text written before 1376.^[4][2][10] The word is older as a surname: Sauare le Pulete in 1251, though the OED can't tell whether this reflects the Anglo-Norman or the English word,^[4] and Pulete in 1297 in Barnhart and the Anglo-Norman Dictionary.^[10][5]

Semantic evolution

The Middle English word meant a young fowl or chicken in general,^[2][9][8] and has narrowed to the young female.^[4][11] In poultry keeping it has especially meant a hen from the point of laying until the first moult, and now often any young hen,^[4][6] with less than a year as the usual limit.^[9][11] A US Department of Agriculture handbook of 1920, quoted by Etymonline, sets a pullet under one year against a hen over it.^[8] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as a young hen, and quoted Shakespeare's pullet sperm for eggs.^[12] A person could be called a pullet from before 1533, in Lord Berners's translation of Guevara, which follows a French use: first a young woman, then anyone young or inexperienced.^[4] Green's dictionary records it as slang for a girl in her teens from 1578.^[13] In 1803 Montagu's Testacea Britannica has the name of a shellfish, later the pullet carpet shell.^[4][6] In Yorkshire dialect the word was a term of derision or contempt.^[14]

Timeline

• 1251 – Pulete as a surname.^[4] Barnhart's and the Anglo-Norman Dictionary's first surname is of 1297.^[10][5]
• c. 1400 – pulettis, young hens, in Piers Plowman.^[4][2]
• before 1533 – a young or inexperienced person, at first a young woman.^[4]
• 1803 – a marine bivalve mollusc, the pullet carpet shell.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A young hen, especially a domestic one less than a year old: She sold a dozen pullets at the market.^[11][9][4]
2. In poultry keeping, a young hen from the time it starts to lay until its first moult.^[4][6]
3. (figurative) A young or inexperienced person, in early use a young woman.^[4][13]
4. A marine bivalve mollusc, Venerupis pullastra, in full the pullet carpet shell.^[4][6]

Related words

• poultry
• pullulate
• poult
• foal
• pony
• poltroon
• polecat

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q 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 Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
14. ^ 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)