Fowl sb.

Forms: 1 fuȝel, -ol, -ul, 2–3 fuȝel, -hel, -wel, south. vuhel, 3–4 foȝel, south. voȝel, (3 feoȝel, fohȝel), 4–5 foghel, -il(l, -ul, (4 fughil, foxl, -ul, fouxl, -ul, fuxl, fuxol, -ul, 5 foghle), 3–7 foul(e, 3–4 fou-, fowel, (south. vowel), fuel, 4 fule, (fouul), 5 f(e)wle, -ylle, 4–7 fowle, 6– fowl. [Com. Teutonic; OE. fuȝel, fuȝol, fuȝul str. masc. = OFris. fugel, OS. fugol (Du. vogel), OHG. fogal (MHG. and Ger. vogel), ON. fugl [Sw. fogel, Da. fugl), Goth. fugls:—OTeut. *foglo-z, fuglo-z; usually believed to be a dissimilated form of *floglo-, fluglo-, f. flug- to FLY; cf. the OE. adj. fluȝol ‘fugax,’ and the form fluȝlas heofun in the Rushworth Gloss., Matt. xiii. 32, rendering volucres cæli; the Lindisf. gloss has fleȝende, the Wessex gospel fuhlas.]

  The forms containing x are from the Cotton MS. of the Cursor Mundi; perh. miscopied from an original which had ȝ (or possibly þ).

  1.  Any feathered vertebrate animal; = BIRD 2 (q.v. with note attached). Now rare exc. collect.

Beowulf, 218 (Gr.).

c. 1000.  Ags. Gosp., Matt. viii. 20. Foxas habbað holu, and heofenan fuȝlas [c. 1160, Hatton fuȝeles] nest.

c. 1175.  Lamb. Hom., 81. A vuhel com flon from houene into orðe.

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 298. We speken of fuwelene cunde, þet beoð iefned to ancre.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 621 (Cott.). Fiss on sund, and fouxl on flight.

1340.  Ayenb., 254. Þe herte is ase þe uoȝel þet wolde vly to his wylle.

1375.  Barbour, Bruce, VII. 188. Tharfor he slepit as foul on twist.

c. 1450.  Mirour Saluacioun, 1002. Thi son wham we abide and seke als foghil the day.

1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 2 b. Fowles, & all other creatures … hath place deputed … to them.

1597.  Montgomerie, Cherrie & Slae, 460.

1599.  Shaks., Much Ado, II. iii. 95. Stalke on, stalke on, the foule sits.

1607.  Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1673), 213. To defend them from Eagles and other ravening Fowls.

1640.  Fuller, Joseph’s Party-coloured Coat, David’s Heavy Punishment, xxii. (1867), 235.

1719.  De Foe, Crusoe, I. xxv. I saw a great fowl, like a hawk, sit upon a tree.

1791.  Cowper, Iliad, XVII. 291.

  collect.

1603.  Drayton, Bar. Wars, VI. lxv. The fearefull Fowle all prostrate to her power.

1605.  Camden, Rem. (1637), 1. The ayre [is] … stored with infinite delicate Fowle.

1769.  Goldsm., Rom. Hist. (1786), II. 273. In this [entertainment] were served up two thousand several dishes of fish, and seven thousand fowl of the most valuable kinds.

1865.  Kingsley, Herew., xvii. All the fowl of heaven flocking to the feast of the great God, that they might eat the flesh of kings, [etc.].

  † b.  In narrower sense: Winged game. Obs.

1646.  Evelyn, Mem. (1857), I. 252. Sometimes we shot at fowls and other birds: nothing came amiss.

1763.  H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. III. 85. In the great antichamber [at Chatsworth] are several dead fowl over the chimney finely executed.

  † c.  With some modifying addition; as, fowl of chase, flight, game, prey, ravin. Obs.

c. 1381.  Chaucer, Parl. Foules, 323.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XII. vi. (1495), 416. The owle semyth lyke to foules of pray.

c. 1420.  Chron. Vilod., 280. Wylde bestes & folys of flyȝt.

1485.  Caxton, Paris & Vienna (1868), 26. Many hawkes, faulcens, and many other fowles of chace.

1671.  Milton, P. R., II. 342.

  fig.  a. 1340.  Cursor M., 21276 (Fairf.). Þe firþ Iohn, fowel of [Cotton MS. on] fliȝt.

  † 2.  In wider sense: Winged creatures. Also collect. in plural sense. Obs.

1382.  Wyclif, Ecclus., xi. 3. Short in foules [Vulg. in volatilibus] is a bee.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XII. Introd. (Tollem. MS.). To þe ornament of þe eyer parteyneþ briddes and foules [volatilia].

1613.  Purchas, Pilgrimage, VIII. x. 789. They offered to him [the Sunne] Fowles, from the Butter-flie to the Eagle.

1648.  Gage, West Ind., xii. (1655), 45. Battes, or Rear-mice and other fowle.

  3.  The prevailing sense: A ‘barn-door fowl,’ a domestic cock or hen; a bird of the genus Gallus. In the U.S. applied also to ‘a domestic duck or turkey’ (Cent. Dict.). Often with some modifying word prefixed: as, barn-door-, game-, guinea-fowl, for which see those words.

1580.  Sidney, Arcadia, III. (1590), 311. As folkes keep foul when they are not fat enough for their eating.

1697.  Dampier, Voy., I. iv. 76. The Inhabitants plant Corn, Yams, Potatoes, and some Plantains, and breed a few Fowls.

1841.  Lane, Arab. Nts., I. 123. Fowls simply roasted or boiled, or boned, and stuffed with raisins, pistachio-nuts, crumbled bread, and parsley.

1879.  Farrar, St. Paul (1883), 43. The Talmud—which devotes one whole treatise to hand-washings, and another to the method of killing a fowl.

  4.  a. The flesh of birds used for food. Now only in the phrases fish, flesh, and fowl, etc. b. In narrower sense: The flesh of the ‘barn-door’ or domestic fowl.

1673.  O. Walker, Educ. (1677), 169. A feast suggests Meats, Cooks, Fish, Foul, Flesh, Sawces, Dishes, Chargers, Wines, Cups, Plates, &c.

1861.  Beeton, Bk. Househ. Man., § 978. Fricasseed Fowl. Ingredients—The remains of cold roast fowl [etc.].

  5.  attrib. and Comb. a. simple attrib., as fowl-fiight, -house, -net, -yard. b. objective, as fowl-keeping, -rearing, -stealer, -stealing. c. Special comb., as fowl-cholera = chicken-cholera: see CHOLERA 4; fowl-foot, the plant Ornithopus perpusillus; fowl-graas, fowl-meadow-grass, Poa trivialis; fowl-run, a place where fowls may run, an establishment for breeding fowls.

1883.  A. Conan Doyle, Life and Death in the Blood, in Good Words, XXIV. 179/2. In France, Toussaint, of Toulouse, extracted the cause of the epidemic among fowls, called *‘fowl-cholera,’ and bred it in an animal infusion.

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 3321.

1578.  Lyte, Dodoens, IV. xxix. 487. Ornithopodium.… This wild herbe is called in Brabant Uoghelvoet, that is to say in English, Birdes foote, or *Fowle foote, bycause his huskes or cods are lyke to a birdes foote.

1839.  Lincoln, etc. Gaz., 12 Feb., 3/4. They went to Mr. F.’s; whose *fowl-house they broke open.

1894.  W. Fream, Some Minor Rural Industries, in Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., June, 303. It is *fowl-keeping on this modest scale that pays, and it is from poultry-farmers in this humble way of business that the higglers obtain the millions of eggs which are sent into this country from the small peasant farmers of France and Holland.

1774.  J. Adams, Diary, 28 Feb. Shall I try to introduce fowl-meadow, and herds-grass into the meadows? or still better, clover and herds-grass? I must ramble over it and take a view.

1786.  M. Cutler, in Life, Jrnls. & Corr. (1888), II. 264. *Fowl meadow-grass is cultivated in wet meadows, produces great crops, and makes good cut-hay for cows.

1856.  Kane, Arct. Expl., II. xiii. 134. When in-doors and at rest, tinkering over their ivory harness-rings, *fowl-nets, or other household-gear, they eat as we often do in more civilized lands.

1894.  W. Fream, Some Minor Rural Industries, in Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., June, 302. A point of cardinal importance, upon which in the preceding pages insistence has been laid in the case both of duck-rearing and of *fowl-rearing, is the maintenance of a vigorous young male bird where breeding is the object in view.

1886.  H. F. Lester, Under Two Fig Trees, 179. In one corner of the little estate is a *fowl-run.

1825.  Sporting Mag., XVI. 336. Have we … no *fowl stealers.

1892.  Pall Mall G., 24 March, 2/1. Poaching is closely allied to *fowl-stealing. Ibid. (1889), 27 May, 2/3. The lack of interest displayed in their *fowl-yards by … British farmers.