Talk:chicken

RFV discussion: November 2015–February 2017

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chicken

To develop characteristics of a chicken. I am doubtful that that sense exists. I would probably say chickenize if I needed to -- which oddly enough does seem to be a valid word, though not with that meaning. WurdSnatcher (talk) 22:43, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

I think that would be gallicize, although that also has a different implication. *Imagines chicken in striped shirt and beret* Delete as nonsense, and per similar discussion over "house" at RfD. P Aculeius (talk) 13:21, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

I've added the other sense to this RfV under the L3 heading below to take advantage of any searching for the above sense. DCDuring TALK 14:09, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

Failed: no quotations after an extended period of discussion, a Google Books search turned up nothing relevant, and this sense is absent from the OED Online. — SMUconlaw (talk) 16:09, 10 February 2017 (UTC)

avoid as a result of fear

"(intransitive) To avoid something as a result of fear."

Does this sense of chicken#Verb shown exist other than in chicken out? If not, we need at least to modify the entry to show the required complement, though I think it doesn't belong in this entry. DCDuring TALK 14:09, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

Searched "he chickened" -out. Got a few hits, all of which seem to be shortened versions of "chickened out", with the same meaning. P Aculeius (talk) 14:59, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

Yeah, I was originally going to rfv that sense, but saw it has some use. I was curious if there are any phrasal verbs whose first component can't be a standalone verb. I guess this sorta counts since I'm sure chicken out came first, so there must have been some time before chicken was used on its own (at least 1946). WurdSnatcher (talk)

I searched for "he chickened the" on Google Books, hoping for something like "he chickened the dare". All I found was "he chickened the rest of the way out", which I think is some kind of resultative construction (cf. "died a death", "the dog barked me awake"). Eirikr is right about! Equinox ◑ 01:15, 18 November 2015 (UTC)

• I parse that more as an alternative construction to "he chickened out the rest of the way". ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 21:51, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

What I was getting was "he chickened before he could do blah" and similar hits. Should be chickened out, but with the out omitted. P Aculeius (talk) 23:41, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

Yeah, it's actually marked intransitive. Sorry, I wasn't paying enough attention. Equinox ◑ 02:36, 18 November 2015 (UTC)

There's a few that look questionable to me: [1] [2] [3] WurdSnatcher (talk)

Those look like good cites. I think that the sense of chicken in question is a backformation from chicken out, ie, a different etymology. DCDuring TALK 02:43, 18 November 2015 (UTC)

Cited and moved to a different etymology. WurdSnatcher (talk) 18:19, 18 November 2015 (UTC)

Not a backformation, just elision of the word 'out'. Renard Migrant (talk) 10:22, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

Omission rather. Renard Migrant (talk) 16:44, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

What about Coq in french? — This unsigned comment was added by 78.193.35.108 (talk) at 22:11, 5 April 2020 (UTC).

It's complicated, because "chicken" has no gender, but in French everything is either male or female. I'm not fluent in French, but I believe coq refers only to the adult male. On the other hand, it looks like poule only refers to the adult female. I added "coq" to parallel "poule", and poulet, which covers both genders- though I'm not sure if it refers to adults (as animals rather than as food, anyway). I hope I got it right (feel free to correct it if I didn't). In older English, chicken originally applied to just the younger ones, but in modern usage it can refer to any age or gender. Chuck Entz (talk) 00:09, 6 April 2020 (UTC)