Rooster Is the American Way of Avoiding an Awkward Word
A rooster is an adult male chicken. American English adopted the word because the older name had acquired another meaning.
A rooster is an adult male chicken, called a *cock* or *cockerel* in Britain. The American preference is a matter of delicacy: nineteenth-century American English replaced the older word, which had acquired a vulgar sense, with one based on *roost*. Britain kept the original and uses cockerel for a young bird.
- An adult male chicken (American). *A rooster crowing.*
- Cockerel — a young male, in British usage. *A cockerel in the yard.*
- Rooster as an emblem. *The Gallic rooster.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | rooster | A bantam rooster. |
| Plural | roosters | Two roosters. |
| British | cockerel | A young cockerel. |
| Female | hen | A laying hen. |
| Young | chick | A day-old chick. |
How it is used in a sentence
- The rooster crows well before dawn.Not only at sunrise.
- Cockerels are usually separated from the flock.British farming.
- The rooster is a national emblem of France.From a Latin pun on Gallus.
Chicken vocabulary
- Hen — an adult female
- Rooster / cock — an adult male
- Cockerel — a young male, under a year
- Pullet — a young female, before laying
- Chick — a newly hatched bird of either sex
From *roost*, a perch where birds sleep, plus *-er*. The word is recorded in American English from the late eighteenth century.
Rooster or cockerel?
Rooster is American for any adult male chicken. In Britain a cockerel is a young male and a cock is an adult.
Why is the rooster a French emblem?
From a Latin pun: *gallus* means both a Gaul and a cockerel. Romans made the joke and the French adopted the bird.