Etymologically
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rooster

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 23:18. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈɹuːstə/[1]
  • US: /ˈɹustɚ/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English roost + -er, the roosting bird,[2][3][4][5] from the verb roost according to the OED and Etymonline,[2][3] from the noun according to the Shorter Oxford.[6] The earlier name was roost-cock, recorded from about 1600.[3][2] The noun roost is from Old English hrost (“framework of a roof; perch”), a word of unknown further origin.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A male domestic fowl, a cock: 1772, in the diary of A. G. Winslow.[2][7][3] Dictionary.com dates it to 1765–75.[5]

Semantic evolution

The word became the usual name for the cock in the United States, where it was noticed as a Yankee word in the 1820s.[3] It is said to have begun as a puritan alternative to cock after that word had taken on the sense "penis", but Etymonline notes that New England newspapers used the two words interchangeably until the mid-19th century; the idea that cock was improper is recorded by 1850, when a journal remarked that "HENS are allowed to be hens, but cocks must always be roosters".[3] The OED labels it chiefly North American, Australian and New Zealand, and formerly English regional,[2] and the English Dialect Dictionary recorded it for the cock in Scotland, Yorkshire, Surrey, Sussex and Somerset as well as in America.[8] In Britain it is still felt as chiefly American and Canadian.[9] From the cock's bearing came slang senses for people: an informer in criminals' slang (1781–1897), a violent or disorderly person (1821); from 1840 also a powerful or boastful person and simply a man or fellow, now chiefly in New Zealand.[2][10]

Timeline

  • c. 1600 – roost cock, the earlier name.[3]
  • 1772 – a male domestic fowl.[2][7][3]
  • 1781 – criminals' slang, an informer (obsolete by 1897).[2]
  • 1811 – a bird or bat that roosts.[2]
  • 1821 – a violent or disorderly person.[2][10]
  • 1840 – a powerful or boastful person; a man, a fellow.[2]
  • 1856 – in the United States, a wild violet used in a children's game.[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An adult male domestic fowl; a cock.[7][9][2]
  2. An adult male of certain other birds: a pheasant rooster.[7]
  3. A person who behaves like a rooster, especially a cocky or boastful one.[7][2][6]
  4. (colloquial) A man, a fellow, often old rooster; originally American, now chiefly New Zealand.[2]
  5. A bird or bat that roosts.[2]
  6. (obsolete, 1781–1897) In criminals' slang, an informer.[2][6]
  • roost

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  6. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e 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)
  9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  10. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com