Chicken Hawk

[ronbutters at AOL.COM]

My memory is that Merriam-W 8th or 9th Collegiate said "homosexual who preys on young boys" but changed in later editions to "with a preference for young men." I assume that, if it was not applied as well to heterosexual men who find young women particularly sexually attractive, homophobia was still at work.

I agree that "chicken" (and "pullet" for really young lads) are rather out of date. My favorite term for adolescent homosexuals is "starter queen".

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Michael Newman wrote:

That might be a little out of date now since "chicken" seems to have died away. It has been mostly displaced by "twink" as a term for really young gay guys. However,  the connotations between the terms are a bit different. Chicken implied underage; whereas twinks can be older maybe up  to early 20s, but they are boyish looking and thin and relatively hairless.

However, back in the day, I do remember, oh never mind.


Michael Newman
Associate Professor of Linguistics
Queens College/CUNY
michael.newman at qc.cuny.edu



On Dec 20, 2010, at 3:39 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:

>
> At 9:05 PM +0100 12/20/10, Paul Frank wrote:
>> A surprising omission in the OED is "chicken
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

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