chick English · revision 7972

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=clipping|attested=c. 1330}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /t͡ʃɪk/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is Middle English chike, a shortening of chiken, [[chicken]],^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(Hoad 1986)^(Collins 2023) which Hoad thinks lost its final n in southern dialects, where chick is sometimes singular and chicken plural.^(Hoad 1986)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ A child: chike about 1330; a young bird, cheke, 1342;^(Barnhart 1988) and as a surname from 1214.^(Barnhart 1988) The OED dates the young fowl from about 1400.^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Applied to human offspring it often appears in alliteration with child,^(Etymonline)^(OED 1989) and became a term of endearment.^(Etymonline) The young bird still in the egg or just hatched is from 1601.^(OED 1989) From about 1600 to 1900 chicken was sometimes taken as a plural of chick, like children.^(Etymonline) As slang for a young woman it is recorded in American English in 1927, in ''Elmer Gantry'',^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989) supposedly from African-American speech, and was popularized by the Beatniks in the late 1950s.^(Etymonline) A Digby chick was a small dried herring (1883).^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1330 – a child.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1342 – a young bird.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1601 – a newly hatched bird.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1927 – a young woman (slang).^(Barnhart 1988)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A young [[chicken]], or the young of any [[bird]].^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # A child, or a term of endearment.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # ''(slang, sometimes offensive)'' A girl or young woman.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[chickweed]]

+ * [[dabchick]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[chicken]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ A separate chick, a screen-blind of split bamboo, is from Hindi, from Persian chiq (1698).^(MWU 2024)^(OED 1989) In Scots a chick was a tick or beat, as of a clock.^(Wright 1898)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}