True Blue --now "CHICKEN"

[Charles Doyle]

The OED's first entry for "chicken" (n.1.1.a) is "The young of the domestic fowl; its flesh," with cited instances from c950-1858.

Some of the illustrative quotations do not OBVIOUSLY refer to YOUNG fowl--especially the references to the boiling or otherwise cooking of a chicken, "its flesh."  Surely not all cooked chickens served on English (or Scottish) tables had been YOUNG at the time of their demise?  Outside the circles of the rich, Englishmen must have cooked and eaten blown-out hens and impotent cocks; waste not, want not.  Or does the dual reference of the OED entry suggest that a "domestic fowl" of advanced years, once it's plucked and put into the pot, reverts to the status of CHICKEN?

--Charlie

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