fowl

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English foul, foghel, fowel, fowele, from Old English fugol (“bird”), from Proto-West Germanic *fugl, from Proto-Germanic *fuglaz, dissimilated variant of *fluglaz (compare Old English flugol ‘fleeing’, Mercian fluglas heofun ‘birds of the air’), from *fleuganą (“to fly”). Cognate with West Frisian fûgel, Low German Vagel, Dutch vogel, German Vogel, Swedish fågel, Danish and Norwegian fugl. Doublet of voël. More at fly.

Pronunciation

• enPR: foul, IPA^(key): /faʊl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Homophone: foul
• Rhymes: -aʊl
• Rhymes: -aʊəl

Noun

fowl (plural fowl or fowls)

1. (archaic) A bird.
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter XIX, in Le Morte Darthur, book XIII (in Middle English):

     And now I take vpon me the aduentures of holy thynges / & now I see and vnderstande that myn old synne hyndereth me and shameth me / so that I had no power to stere nor speke whan the holy blood appiered afore me / So thus he sorowed til hit was day / & herd the fowles synge / thenne somwhat he was comforted

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. A bird of the order Galliformes, including chickens, turkeys, pheasant, partridges and quail.
3. Birds which are hunted or kept for food, including Galliformes and also waterfowl of the order Anseriformes such as ducks, geese and swans, together forming the clade Galloanserae.

Derived terms

• Cochin fowl
• Dorking fowl
• fowl bluegrass, fowl grass, fowl meadow grass (Poa palustris)
• fowl-house
• fowlish
• fowlkind
• fowl-like
• fowllike
• fowl-lore
• fowl paralysis
• fowl pest
• fowl-run
• game fowl
• guinea-fowl
• guinea fowl
• helmeted guinea fowl
• junglefowl, jungle fowl (Gallus spp.)
• make fish of one and fowl of another
• mallee fowl
• neither fish, flesh, nor fowl
• neither fish nor fowl
• Philippine fowl disease
• Spanish fowl
• yardfowl

 

Descendants

• Krio: fɔl

Translations

bird — see bird

bird of the order Galliformes

• Dutch: stuk pluimvee n
• Finnish: kanalintu (fi)
• French: volaille (fr) f
• German: Stück Federvieh n, Geflügel (de) n
• Greek: πουλερικό (el) n (poulerikó)
• Hungarian: baromfi (hu), szárnyas (hu)
• Indonesian: ayam (id)
• Italian: pollame (it) m
• Javanese: pitik (jv)
• Kodava: ಕೋಳಿ (kōḷi)
• Latvian: mājputns m
• Lithuanian: naminis paukštis m
• Neapolitan: pollo m
• Norwegian: fjærfe n
• Occitan: polalha (oc) f, volalha (oc) f
• Old Javanese: pitik
• Ottoman Turkish: طاوق (tavuk)
• Persian: ماکیان (fa) (mâkiyân)
• Polish: drób (pl) m
• Portuguese: galiforme (pt) m
• Russian: домашняя пти́ца f (domašnjaja ptíca)
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: pjerina f

• Spanish: ave (es) f
• Turkish: kümes hayvanı (tr)
• Volapük: gok (vo)

birds which are hunted or kept for food

• Dutch: gevogelte (nl) n
• Finnish: riistalintu (fi) (hunted); siipikarja (fi) (kept)
• French: volaille (fr) f
• German: Geflügel (de) n
• Greek: πουλερικό (el) n (poulerikó)
• Hungarian: szárnyas (hu), víziszárnyas
• Icelandic: fiðurfé n
• Irish: éanlaith f
• Italian: volatile (it) m
• Polish: ptactwo (pl) n
• Portuguese: ave de criação/corte f
• Russian: пернатая дичь f (pernataja dičʹ) (hunted)
• Slovak: hydina (sk) f pl (kept), hyd m pl (kept)
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: pjerina f

• Spanish: ave (es) f
• Turkish: kümes hayvanı (tr)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Welsh: ^{(please verify)} dofedn, ^{(please verify)} ffowlyn, ^{(please verify)} ffowl

Verb

fowl (third-person singular simple present fowls, present participle fowling, simple past and past participle fowled)

1. To hunt fowl.

   We took our guns and went fowling.

Derived terms

• fowler
• fowling

Translations

to hunt fowl

• Welsh: adara

Etymology 2

Adjective

fowl (comparative fowler, superlative fowlest)

1. (obsolete) foul
   • Paradise Lost, John Milton

     Say first, for Heav'n hides nothing from thy view / Nor the deep Tract of Hell, say first what cause / Mov'd our Grand Parents in that happy State / Favour'd of Heav'n so highly, to fall off / From their Creator, and transgress his Will / For one restraint, Lords of the World besides? / Who first seduc'd them to that fowl revolt?

References

• “fowl”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “fowl”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Wolf, flow, wolf

Middle English

Noun

fowl (plural fowles)

1. Alternative form of fowel

   And smale fowles maken melodye
   That slepen all the night with open ye - Chaucer, General Prologue, Canterbury Tales, ll.9-10