Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
fowl [foul] WORD ORIGIN noun, plural fowls, (especially collectively) fowl. the domestic or barnyard hen or rooster; chicken.Compare domestic fowl. any of several other, usually gallinaceous, birds that are barnyard, domesticated, or wild, as the duck, turkey, or pheasant. (in market and household use) a full-grown domestic fowl for food purposes, as distinguished from a chicken or young fowl. the flesh or meat of a domestic fowl. any bird (used chiefly in combination): waterfowl; wildfowl. verb (used without object) to hunt or take wildfowl. Liberaldictionary.com
Origin of fowl before 900; Middle English foul, Old English fugol, fugel; cognate with Old Saxon fugal, Gothic fugls, Old High German fogal (German Vogel)Can be confusedfoul fowl Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019 British Dictionary definitions for fowled fowl noun See domestic fowl any other bird, esp any gallinaceous bird, that is used as food or hunted as gameSee also waterfowl, wildfowl the flesh or meat of fowl, esp of chicken an archaic word for any bird verb (intr) to hunt or snare wildfowl Word Origin for fowl Old English fugol; related to Old Frisian fugel, Old Norse fogl, Gothic fugls, Old High German fogal Collins English Dictionary – Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012 Word Origin and History for fowled fowl n.
Old English fugel “bird,” representing the general Germanic word for them, from Proto-Germanic *foglaz (cf. Old Frisian fugel, Old Norse fugl, Middle Dutch voghel, Dutch vogel, German vogel, Gothic fugls), probably by dissimilation from *flug-la-, literally “flyer,” from the same root as Old English fleogan, modern fly (v.1).
Originally “bird;” narrower sense of “domestic hen or rooster” (the main modern meaning) is first recorded 1570s; in U.S. also extended to ducks and geese. As a verb, Old English fuglian “to catch birds.” Related: Fowled; fowling.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper Idioms and Phrases with fowled fowl
see neither fish nor fowl.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
