Chicken/poultry?

Chicken/pullet seems to have gone the opposite way: pullet (French) is exclusively for the animal but chicken (Germanic) can be either the animal or its meat.

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shevy-java 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Is chicken really German though? A hen is called "Huhn" (Das Huhn), and chicken may be more appropriately translated as "Geflügel" (or rather, the latter would be poultry; chicken would be "Huhn" or "Hähnchen"). I don't see the germanic origin insinuated here for the word "chicken", whereas I do so it for "hen" <- "Huhn" quite easily. (And "Geflügel" has "Flügel" which relates more easily to flight/to fly, or better Flügel=wing).

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dmurray 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Wiktionary [0] seems pretty confident ("Germanic" includes all of the languages below, not just modern German).

[0] From Middle English chiken (also as chike > English chick), from Old English ċicen, ċycen (“chicken”), of uncertain origin. Possibly from Proto-West Germanic kiukīn (“chicken”), or alternatively from Proto-West Germanic kukkīn, equivalent to cock +‎ -en.

Compare North Frisian schückling (“chicken”), Saterland Frisian Sjuuken (“chicken”), Dutch kuiken (“chick, chicken”), German Low German Küken (“chick”), whence German Küken (“chick”), (elevated, obsolete) German Küchlein (“chick”) and Old Norse kjúklingr (“chicken”).

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Orphis 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

In the same family of languages (proto-germanic), you'll have Swedish for which the word for the meat is "kyckling" which more pronounced like "chickling".

Modern German might have changed along the way, but if you go back far enough, there should be something. I'm not a linguist or a native speaker of a Proto-Germanic language, so I don't know enough to pinpoint this better.

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inglor_cz 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

In German, you can also use the word Küken, which is very clearly a cognate of English chicken.

Know this song? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6Yce3AxF9c

	▲	themaninthedark an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I did not, do you know this one: https://youtu.be/Ppm5_AGtbTo?is=JXIEHIckWMhcfmUP Also bonus one: https://youtu.be/miomuSGoPzI?is=IpXvzjGRIswRjUsv
	▲	ButlerianJihad an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Oh my dirndl. I am now a fan of Heidis Küken and I will be carefully studying vocabulary with them. Here is Die Sauerkrauts, presenting the Chicken Dance: https://youtu.be/jJcCwbV5kp8?is=Ug4EqlKjN2o9xjBe

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mdurana 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Funnily enough in Switzerland they use "Poulet" to mean exclusively chicken meat.

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shevy-java 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Sounds very french-like in origin. Do all in Switzerland use that though? Even the exclusively german-speaking part? In Austria there is a West-East difference, some words spoken by the Vorarlbergers (most western part) we don't too easily understand in the east (it's quite similar to swiss-german in some ways in the western area, but not identical either).

	▲	Leherenn 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Yes, the GP was referring about Swiss German. Not sure if it's used in all the dialects, but at least Züritüütsch uses it. But you're right it's most likely a much more recent import from French, just like "velo", "merci" and others.