Etymograph

English

pullet

Pullet comes from Vulgar Latin pullus ‘dark-colored, dark-gray, dusky’.

  1. Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CEpullus1as pulla‘dark-colored, dark-gray, dusky’
  2. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400pullet1
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500polet1
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1646pullet1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English pullet
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: “They died not because the Pullets would not feed:…”.

Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.

Lineage

  1. Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CEpullusWiktionary, English pulletas pulla‘dark-colored, dark-gray, dusky’
  2. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400pulletWiktionary, English pullet
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500poletWiktionary, English pullet
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1646pulletWiktionary, English pullet. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: “They died not because the Pullets would not feed:…”

Equivalent to pullus + -et

Latin pullus

English pullus

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *pelH- ‘pale, gray’

pale, poly, paloma, pall, fallow, palomino, 25 more

through Vulgar Latin pullus ‘dark-colored, dark-gray, dusky’

pony, poultry, poussin, poulter, 12 more

Today it means

noun A young hen, especially one less than a year old.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “pullet”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Vulgar Latin pullus / pullet

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