Fowl
/faʊl/noun
A bird, especially a domestic bird such as a chicken, duck, or goose.
Did you know?English fowl comes from Old English fugol, and it’s part of a deep Germanic bird-word family that also gave us the German Vogel—proof that everyday animal names can carry thousands of years of linguistic history.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*plewk-
“A root probably meaning to fly or move through the air”
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*fuglaz
“Bird”
Old English
OE
fugol
“Bird, fowl”
Middle English
ME
foul, fowl
“Bird, especially a domestic bird”
Modern English
English
fowl
“A bird, especially a domesticated bird”