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hen

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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See also: Appendix:Variations of "hen"

English

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /hɛn/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛn

Etymology 1

From Middle English hen, from Old English henn (“hen”), from Proto-West Germanic *hannju, from Proto-Germanic *hanjō (“hen”), from Proto-Indo-European *kan-, *kana- (“to sing”).

Cognate with Saterland Frisian Hanne (“hen”), West Frisian hin (“hen”), Dutch hen (“hen”), German Low German Heen (“hen”), German Henne (“hen”), Danish høne (“hen”), Swedish höna (“hen”), Icelandic hæna (“hen”). Related to Old English hana (“cock, rooster”). Also cognate to Latin cicōnia (“stork”), Latin canō (“to sing”), Russian каню́к (kanjúk, “buzzard”). Compare Russian пету́х (petúx, “rooster, cock”) from Russian петь (petʹ, “to sing”).

Etymology 1, sense 7 after cock (“male chicken; man's penis”).

Alternative forms

Noun

hen (plural hens)

  2. A female chicken (Gallus gallus), especially a sexually mature one kept for her eggs.
    Hypernyms: chicken < poultry
    Hyponym: pullet
    Coordinate terms: cock, cockerel, rooster
    • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
      She was a fat, round little woman, richly apparelled in velvet and lace, […] ; and the way she laughed, cackling like a hen, the way she talked to the waiters and the maid, […]—all these unexpected phenomena impelled one to hysterical mirth, and made one class her with such immortally ludicrous types as Ally Sloper, the Widow Twankey, or Miss Moucher.
  3. A female of other bird species, particularly a sexually mature female fowl.
    Coordinate term: cock
    • 2023 June 17, Severin Carrell, “Dancing Capercaillie bird makes a tentative comeback in Scotland”, in The Guardian‎:
      In Tain, north of Inverness, staff detected 11 males and at least seven hens – the highest number there since 2011.
  4. (uncommon) A female fish (especially a salmon or trout) or crustacean.
    • 2005, Roderick Sutterby, Malcolm Greenhalgh, “Life in the Nursery”, in Atlantic Salmon: An Illustrated Natural History, Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, →ISBN, page 21:
      As spawning time approaches – autumn or very early winter in most rivers, though in some late-run streams salmon may spawn as late as January or February – the hen's colouration becomes first a matt-pewter and then a drab dark brown-grey. The cock fish, in contrast, begins to gain some brighter colours.
    Synonym: henfish
    Coordinate terms: buck, cock, cockfish
  5. (figuratively) A woman.
    • 1785, Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue:
      Hen, a woman. A cock and hen club; a club composed of men and women.
    1. (UK, informal) A bride-to-be, particularly in the context of a hen night.
  6. (UK, informal) A hen night.
  7. (Scotland, informal) An affectionate term of address used to women or girls.
    Don't cry, hen. Everything will be all right.
  9. (transgender slang) The penis of a trans woman.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:trans woman's penis
    Coordinate term: cock
  10. (figuratively, derogatory, uncommon) A henlike person of either sex.
  11. The hard clam (Mercenaria mercenaria), a bivalve shellfish.
  12. (obsolete) A large pewter pot used in a tavern.
    Coordinate term: chicken
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations

Verb

hen (third-person singular simple present hens, present participle henning, simple past and past participle henned)

  1. (transitive, intransitive) Synonym of mother-hen.
    • 1943, McCall's - Volume 71, page 69:
      Once he had flared up, "If ever a man was henned, it's me!"
    • 1984, Susan C. Feldhake, Love Beyond Surrender, page 52:
      Mammy henned the black workers into placing the trunks beside the girls.
See also

Etymology 2

From Middle English henne, heonne, hinne, from earlier henene, heonenen, henen, from Old English heonan, hionan, heonane, heonone (“hence, from here, away, from how”), from Proto-Germanic *hina, *hinanō (“from here”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱe-, *ḱey- (“this, here”). Cognate with Dutch heen (“away”), German hin (“hence, from here”), Danish hen (“away, further, on”). See also hence.

Adverb

hen (not comparable)

  1. (dialectal) Hence.

Etymology 3

From hen (“hence, away”), or a variant of hench.

Verb

hen (third-person singular simple present hens, present participle henning, simple past and past participle henned)

  1. (dialectal) To throw.

References

  • Fielding, Lucie (2021), Trans Sex: Clinical Approaches to Trans Sexualities and Erotic Embodiments, New York: Routledge, →ISBN, page 96

Anagrams

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Breton

Etymology

From Proto-Brythonic *hen, from Proto-Celtic *senos, from Proto-Indo-European *sénos.

Adjective

hen

  1. old, ancient

Cimbrian

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle High German haben, from Old High German hāben, from Proto-West Germanic *habbjan, from Proto-Germanic *habjaną (“to have; to hold”). Cognate with German haben, English have.

Verb

hen (irregular, auxiliary hen)

  1. (Tredici Comuni) to have

References

Cornish

Etymology

From Proto-Brythonic *hen, from Proto-Celtic *senos.

Adjective

hen

  1. (archaic) old
  2. long-standing

Danish

Etymology

From Middle Low German hen, ultimately related to Proto-Germanic *hiz (“here”). Related to Swedish hän, English hence, and German hin.

Pronunciation

Adverb

hen

  1. Used with a verb, indicating a movement towards or to something.
    Gå hen til din far.
    Go to your father.
    Hestene går hen imod mig.
    The horses are walking towards me.

Usage notes

Contrast with henne; where hen indicates movement, henne indicates position. Thus hvor løber han henne? means "where is he running?", whereas hvor løber han hen? means "to where is he running?".

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Dutch

Finnish

Japanese

Mandarin

Middle English

Mohawk

Norwegian Bokmål

Norwegian Nynorsk

Polish

Scots

Swedish

Veps

Vietnamese

Welsh

Yola

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