hen

Meanings

Noun

• A female chicken (Gallus gallus), particularly a sexually mature one kept for her eggs.
• A female of other bird species, particularly a sexually mature female fowl.
• A female fish (especially a salmon or trout) or crustacean.
• A woman, particularly
• A hen night.
• A henlike person of either sex.
• The hard clam (Mercenaria mercenaria), a bivalve shellfish.

Verb

• Alternative of mother-hen
• To throw.

Adverb

• Hence.

Related

Similar words

• hen-bird
• bachelorette
• hard clam, hen-clam, hen-fish

Origin

• Image:Mother hen with chicks02.jpg|thumb|A mother hen with [[chicks.]]
• 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-.
• Cognate with Dutch hen ("hen"), West Frisian hin ("hen"), German Low German Heen ("hen"), German Henne ("hen"), Icelandic hæna ("hen"), Danish høne ("hen"), Swedish höna ("hen"). Related also to Old English hana ("cock, rooster").
• From Middle English henne, heonne, hinne, from earlier henene, heonenen, henen, from Old English heonan, hionan, heonane, heonone, from Proto-Germanic *hina, *hinanō, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱe-, *ḱey-. Cognate with Dutch heen ("away"), German hin ("hence, from here"), Danish hen ("away, further, on"). See also hence.
• From hen, or a variant of hench.