fowl

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: foul, IPA^(key): /faʊl/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

  • Rhymes: -aʊl
• enPR: fou'əl, IPA^(key): /ˈfaʊ.əl/
  • Rhymes: -aʊəl
• Homophone: foul

Etymology 1

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *plew-

Proto-Indo-European *plewk-der.

Proto-Germanic *fluglazder.

Proto-Germanic *fuglaz

Proto-West Germanic *fugl

Old English fugol

Middle English foul

English fowl

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, Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk fugl. Doublet of voël. More at fly.

Noun

fowl (plural fowl or fowls)

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

     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

     And now I take upon myself the adventures of holy things / And now I see and understand that my old sin hinders me and shames me / so that I had no power to steer nor speak when the holy blood appeared afore me / So thus he sorrowed till it was day / and heard the fowls sing / then somewhat he was comforted

2. A bird hunted or kept for food, grouped into landfowl (order Galliformes), also called gamefowl, and waterfowl (order Anseriformes: ducks, geese, swans, etc.), which together form the clade Galloanserae.

Derived terms

• antifowl
• Cochin fowl
• Dorking fowl
• fowl bluegrass, fowl grass, fowl meadow grass (Poa palustris)
• fowlery
• fowlhouse
• fowl-house
• fowlish
• fowlkind
• fowllike
• fowl-like
• fowl-lore
• fowl paralysis
• fowl pest
• fowlpox
• fowl-run
• fowlyard
• frizzle fowl
• gamefowl
• game fowl
• guinea-fowl
• guinea fowl
• helmeted guinea fowl
• junglefowl, jungle fowl (Gallus spp.)
• landfowl
• make fish of one and fowl of another
• mallee fowl
• moorfowl
• neither fish, flesh, nor fowl
• neither fish nor fowl
• nightfowl
• peafowl
• Philippine fowl disease
• rockfowl
• scrubfowl
• seafowl
• Spanish fowl
• spurfowl
• waterfowl
• wildfowl
• wormfowl
• yardfowl

Descendants

• Krio: fɔl
• Sranan Tongo: fowru

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)

  Old Javanese: pitik

• Kodava: ಕೋಳಿ (kōḷi)
• Latvian: mājputns m
• Lithuanian: naminis paukštis m
• Neapolitan: pollo m
• Norwegian: fjærfe n
• Occitan: polalha (oc) f, volalha (oc) f
• Persian: ماکیان (fa) (mâkiyân)
• Polish: drób (pl) m
• Portuguese: galiforme (pt) m
• Russian: дома́шняя пти́ца f (domášnjaja ptíca)
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: pjerina f

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

  Ottoman Turkish: طاوق (tavuk), مرغ (mürg)

• 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
• Macedonian: живина f (živina)
• Polish: ptactwo (pl) n
• Portuguese: ave de criação/corte f
• Russian: перна́тая дичь f (pernátaja 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)

  Ottoman Turkish: طاوق (tavuk), مرغ (mürg)

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

Etymology 2

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *plew-

Proto-Indo-European *plewk-der.

Proto-Germanic *fluglazder.

Proto-Germanic *fuglaz

Proto-West Germanic *fugl

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂

Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂

Proto-Indo-European *-yéti

Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ti

Proto-Germanic *-ōną

Proto-West Germanic *-ōn

Proto-West Germanic *fuglōn

Old English fuglian

Middle English foulen

English fowl

Inherited from Middle English foulen, from Old English fuglian, from Proto-West Germanic *fuglōn, from *fugl (“bird”) + *-ōn (denominative suffix).

Verb

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

2. (intransitive) To hunt fowl.

   We took our guns and went fowling.

3. (transitive) To use or traverse in pursuit of fowls.
   • 1611, Ben[jamin] Jonson, Catiline His Conspiracy, London: […] [William Stansby?] for Walter Burre, →OCLC, Act I, signature D, recto:

     They hunt all grounds; and dravv all ſeas;
     Foule euery brooke, and buſh; to pleaſe
     Their vvanton taſts: […]

Derived terms

• fowler
• fowling

Translations

to hunt fowl

• Middle English: foulen
• Polish: polować na drób impf
• Welsh: adara

Etymology 3

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.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin Eli Smith, editors (1895–1910), “fowl”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Wolf, flow, wolf

Middle English

Etymology 1

Noun

fowl

1. alternative form of foul (“bird”)

Etymology 2

Adjective

fowl

1. (Late Middle English) alternative form of foul (“foul”)