chicken: [OE] Chicken is a widespread Germanic word (Dutch has kuiken, for instance, and Danish kylling), whose ancestor has been reconstructed as *kiukīnam. This was formed, with a diminutive suffix, on a base *keuk-, which some have claimed is a variant of a base which lies behind cock; if that is so, a chicken would amount etymologically to a ‘little cock’ (and historically the term has been applied to young fowl, although nowadays it tends to be the general word, regardless of age). Chick is a 14thcentury abbreviation.
The modern adjectival sense ‘scared’ is a 20th-century revival of a 17thand 18th-century noun sense ‘coward’, based no doubt on chicken-hearted. => cock
chicken (n.)
Old English cicen (plural cicenu) "young fowl," which by early Middle English had came to mean "young chicken," then later any chicken, from Proto-Germanic *kiukinam (cognates: Middle Dutch kiekijen, Dutch kieken, Old Norse kjuklingr, Swedish kyckling, German Küken "chicken"), from root *keuk- (echoic of the bird's sound and possibly also the root of cock (n.1)) + diminutive suffixes.
Applied to the young of other bird species from early 13c. Adjective sense of "cowardly" is at least as old as 14c. (compare hen-herte "a chicken-hearted person," mid-15c.). As the name of a game of danger to test courage, it is first recorded 1953. Chicken feed "paltry sum of money" is by 1897, American English slang; literal use (it is made from the from lowest quality of grain) by 1834. Chicken lobster "young lobster," is from c. 1960s, American English, apparently from chicken in its sense of "young." Generic words for "chicken" in Indo-European tend to be extended uses of "hen" words, as hens are more numerous among domestic fowl, but occasionally they are from words for the young, as in English and in Latin pullus.
chicken (v.)
"to back down or fail through cowardice," 1943, U.S. slang, from chicken (n.), almost always with out (adv.).
双语例句
1. He decided on roast chicken and vegetables, with apple pie to follow.
他决定点烤鸡配蔬菜，然后再要一份苹果派。
来自柯林斯例句
2. I'm scared of the dark. I'm a big chicken.
我怕黑，是个十足的胆小鬼。
来自柯林斯例句
3. They tend to buy cheap processed foods like canned chicken and macaroni.
他们往往会买便宜的加工食品，像鸡肉罐头和通心粉之类的。
来自柯林斯例句
4. Prepare the chicken stock using the carcases, the diced vegetables and herbs.
做鸡汤的用料有鸡肉、切成块的蔬菜和香料。
来自柯林斯例句
5. She offered Molly tidbits: a chicken drumstick, some cheese.