fowl

Meanings

Noun

• A bird.
• A bird of the order Galliformes, including chickens, turkeys, pheasant, partridges and quail.
• Birds which are hunted or kept for food, including Galliformes and also waterfowl of the order Anseriformes such as ducks, geese and swans.

Verb

• To hunt fowl.

Adjective

• foul

Origin

• From Middle English foul, foghel, fowel, fowele, from Old English fugol ("bird"), from Proto-Germanic *fuglaz, dissimilated variant of *fluglaz (compare Old English flugol ‘fleeing’, Mercian fluglas heofun ‘birds of the air’), from *fleuganą. Cognate with West Frisian fûgel, Low German Vagel, Dutch vogel, German Vogel, Swedish fågel, Danish and Norwegian fugl. voël. More at fly.