Date:  Thu, 19 May 1994 16:21:54 -0700

From:  "Joseph B. Monda" <monda[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]SEATTLEU.EDU>

Subject: Re: Spring chicken



AS I recall my poultry days, a hen can lay eggs without their being

fertile. And I don't know whether a pullet will breed without having

been bred to a cock. It was my impression that a brooding hen is a

setting hen, or one that wished to be such. But this goes back to my

boyhood on the farm, and what did I know about life then.



I know nothing --fortunately-- about virgin sows, but I think there is a

word for an unbred female pig: "gilt."



On Thu, 19 May 1994, David Prager Branner wrote:



>     Many people have suggested "pullet" for 'young "virgin" hen',

> which is not exactly the word I had in mind. A hen can be a pullet even

> after she begins laying; I am looking for a word meaning a hen that has

> not yet begun brooding.

>     There is a Chinese word for this that is very important in

> dialectology, but I have never found a way to express it in English except

> with a long explanation. Chinese value this kind of bird because it is

> extremely tasty - actually, I have never eaten this kind of meat in the

> United States, only in China. My informants there say that it is not the

> laying of eggs but brooding that causes the taste of the meat to change.

> Since "spring chickens" are famous in the West for their fine taste (which

> I have never sampled, to my sorrow), it seemed to me that this might be a

> closer word than "pullet". But a spring chicken can be male, too, can't

> it?

>

>     How about a word for a "virgin" sow? Is there such a word in

> English? It is faily common in the Hakka areas of Fwujiann.

>

>                     David Prager Branner

>                     Asian Languages and Literature

>                     University of Washington, DO-21

>                     Seattle, WA 98195

>

>                     <charmii[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]u.washington.edu>

>