Chickenlike

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Having the appearance, manner or qualities typical of a chicken, such as a fowl-like shape or timid, fussy behavior
2. Looking or acting like a chicken, with features or habits reminiscent of a domestic fowl
3. Suggestive of a chicken in form, movement or temperament, often used to describe something bird-like and skittish

Etymology: Chickenlike is about as plain as English compounds get: the noun "chicken" joined to the suffix "-like," which means "having the form or character of." The suffix has a long pedigree of its own. It descends from a Proto-Germanic word meaning "body" or "form," and it reached Old English as "-līċ," which over the Middle English period wore down to the "-like" we use today. Its sense of resemblance, rather than the older idea of bodily shape, is the one that carried into modern compounds such as "childlike," "godlike" and this one. The noun "chicken" has a more winding past. Its ancestor, Old English "ċicen," came from a Proto-Germanic form built on the sound of a young bird's call, and the Proto-Germanic "kuk-" root also fed "cock," the male bird. The distinction between the young bird and the fowl in general came later, as "chicken" gradually broadened from "young chicken" to any member of the species. Adding "-like" to that broader sense gives the adjective its straightforward meaning of resembling a chicken, in appearance or manner.