student asking question

I've heard that chicken also means a "coward." Why is that?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

I'm not 100% of how "chicken" became synonymous with "cowardly," but it may have derived from the fairy tale "Chicken Little." "Chicken Little" is the story of a cowardly chicken scared of everything and was convinced that the world was ending because of all the "terrifying" people and things he encountered. It also may have derived during the Civil War era where anyone who enlisted was given a chicken to prepare as the last meal before being shipped off to war. If the man did not show up the next day, he would be publicly shamed in the newspaper.

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