fowl

English

Etymology

From Middle English foul, foghel, from Old English fugol, from Proto-Germanic *fuglaz, dissimilated variant of *fluglaz (compare Old English flugol ‘fleeing’, Mercian fluglas heofun ‘fowls of the air’), from *fleuganą ‘to fly’. Compare West Frisian fûgel, Low German Vagel, Dutch vogel, German Vogel, Danish fugl. More at fly.

Pronunciation

• enPR: foul, IPA: /faʊl/, X-SAMPA: /faUl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

  Homophone: foul

• Rhymes: -aʊl

Noun

Wikipedia fowl (plural fowl or fowls)

1. (archaic) A bird.
   • 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book XIII:

     So thus he sorowed tyll hit was day, and harde the fowlys synge; than somwhat he was comforted.

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

Translations

bird

• Catalan: au (ca) f
• Finnish: lintu (fi)
• French: oiseau (fr) m
• German: Vogel (de) m
• Greek: πτηνό (el) (ptinó) n , πουλί (el) (poulí) n 

• Hungarian: madár (hu)
• Italian: volatile (it) m
• Russian: птица (ru) f (ptica), дичь (ru) f (dičʹ)
• Swedish: fågel (sv) c
• Turkish: kuş (tr)

Galliformes, including chickens, turkeys, pheasant, partridges and quail

• Dutch: gevogelte (nl) n
• Finnish: kanalintu (fi)
• French: pintade (fr) f
• German: Geflügel (de) n
• Greek: πουλερικό (el) (poulerikó) n 
• Hungarian: baromfi (hu), szárnyas (hu)
• Italian: pollame (it) m
• Latvian: mājputns (lv) m

• Lithuanian: naminis paukštis (lt) m
• Neapolitan: pollo m
• Polish: drób (pl) m
• Russian: домашняя птица f
• Spanish: ave (es) f
• Turkish: kümes hayvanı (tr)
• Volapük: gok (vo)

Galliformes and also waterfowl of the order Anseriformes such as ducks, geese and swans

• Dutch: gevogelte (nl) n
• Finnish: riistalintu (fi), kanalintu (fi)
• German: Geflügel (de) n
• Greek: πουλερικό (el) (poulerikó) n 
• Hungarian: szárnyas (hu), víziszárnyas (hu)

• Icelandic: fiðurfé (is) n
• Polish: ptactwo (pl) n
• Russian: пернатая дичь f
• Spanish: ave (es) f
• Turkish: kümes hayvanı (tr)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• French: volaille f (2), (3)

• Portuguese: galináceo (1)
• Welsh: dofedn, ffowlyn, ffowl

Verb

fowl (third-person singular simple present fowls, present participle fowling, simple past and past participle fowled)

1. To hunt fowl.

Anagrams

• flow
• wolf

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Middle English

Etymology

From Old English fugol, from Proto-Germanic.

Noun

fowl (plural fowles)

1. a bird

And smale fowles maken melodye
That slepen all the night with open ye - Chaucer, General Prologue, Canterbury Tales, ll.9-10