BB: Neither of these is me! Picture: Merriam-Webster online, https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/idioms-that-come-from-chickens-chicken-phrases.

If you love words as I do, and enjoy a little offbeat, quirky, start to your day, then you need to look no further than a recent post on chickens from the Merriam-Webster dictionary. Yes, chickens! I didn’t realise how intimate a relationship we have with our poultry, judging by how many chicken idioms we have in our linguistic nest, from ruling the roost to pecking order; from walking on eggshells to not putting all our eggs in one basket; from flying the coop to coming home to roost (with the mother hen, of course!)

From Merriam-Webster online.

You can read all about them in an online article Seven common idioms that come from chickens, by clicking here. (By the way, don’t ask which came first, the chicken or the egg?)

Pecking order, eggshells and other fowl expressions

Merriam-Webster have some fine explanations on the origins of these fowl idioms. For example: “Pecking order refers to the basic pattern of social organization within a flock of poultry in which each bird pecks another lower in the scale without fear of retaliation and submits to pecking by one of higher rank. Chickens thus establish rank within their flock by pecking one another. The phrase is also sometimes used of other, non-pecking animals such as horses. In its idiomatic use, pecking order among humans refers to a social hierarchy (though usually without the pecking).”

An Italian take on chicken idioms

The Italians are partial to a chicken idiom, too, notably the phrase ‘conosco i miei polli.’  

The English-language online Italian newspaper The Local tells us: “There’s no perfect translation into English, but it means something along the lines of ‘I know who I’m dealing with/ what they can get up to/ what they’re like’; I know what to expect from them, for better or worse.”

I like The Local’s final comments: “It usually implies slightly mischievously that the people or person being discussed could be troublemakers, and that the speaker has the necessary knowledge to deal with them effectively. You might think of it as: ‘I know how those jokers operate‘ if discussing petty officials or difficult colleagues.”

Troublemaker? Who, me? Picture: Thegreenj, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

No such problems at the Watermill, of course: everything is sweetness and light, and local officials melt at Lois’ smile. (Well, sometimes!)

From playful language to convivial creativity at the Watermill

We don’t keep chickens, but (as the English say) we know our onions when it comes to inspiring creativity, warm hospitality, delicious food and wine, stunning locations and the convivial company of like-minded people at the Watermill. Come and join us! Just click here.