Re: Epicene words

"Tristan McLeay" <conlang@...> wrote:

> > It is similar in this respect to the word "hen."  A flock of hens
> > means (at least to me) a flock of female chickens.  One must specify
> > hen sparrows or hen pigeons or whatever.
>
> I always thought chickens *were* females, and that it was much the same
> as cows in that respect. (The only species other than chooks/chickens
> for which I use 'hen' though is the peacock (male+epicene) and the
> peahen (female), and with the word 'chook' so conveniently in my
> lexicon I almost never use the word 'hen' to mean 'chook'.)
"Chook"?  Sounds like a racial slur.
For chickens, I've always used "rooster" for male and "hen" for
female.  (In the United States, "cock" is impolite because it also
means penis.)

--
Damian, who eats mor chikin

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