hen

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A female chicken (Gallus gallus), especially a sexually mature one kept for her eggs.

   She was a fat, round little woman, richly apparelled in velvet and lace, […]; and the way she laughed, cackling like a hen, the way she talked to the waiters and the maid,[…]—all these unexpected phenomena impelled one to hysterical mirth, and made one class her with such immortally ludicrous types as Ally Sloper, the Widow Twankey, or Miss Moucher.

2. 2
   noun

   A female of other bird species, particularly a sexually mature female fowl.

   In Tain, north of Inverness, staff detected 11 males and at least seven hens – the highest number there since 2011.

3. 3
   noun

   A female fish (especially a salmon or trout) or crustacean.

   As spawning time approaches – autumn or very early winter in most rivers, though in some late-run streams salmon may spawn as late as January or February – the hen's colouration becomes first a matt-pewter and then a drab dark brown-grey. The cock fish, in contrast, begins to gain some brighter colours.

4. 4
   noun

   A woman.

   Hen, a woman. A cock and hen club; a club composed of men and women.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Hen is an Old English word ultimately related to Latin canere, “to sing.”

From Middle English hen, from Old English henn (“hen”), from Proto-West Germanic *hannju, from Proto-Germanic *hanjō (“hen”), from Proto-Indo-European *kan-, *kana- (“to sing”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Hanne (“hen”), West Frisian hin (“hen”), Dutch hen (“hen”), German Low German Heen (“hen”), German Henne (“hen”), Danish høne (“hen”), Swedish höna (“hen”), Icelandic hæna (“hen”). Related to Old English hana (“cock, rooster”). Also cognate to Latin cicōnia (“stork”), Latin canō (“to sing”), Russian каню́к (kanjúk, “buzzard”). Compare Russian пету́х (petúx, “rooster, cock”) from Russian п...

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