"Richard Wright" > wrote in message
...
> On Thu, 10 Aug 2006 17:33:26 -0700, Robert Klute >
> wrote:
>
>>On Thu, 10 Aug 2006 18:40:23 -0400, ishmale > wrote:
>>
>>> A hen is not a cock.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>(must be a city man...)
>>Who me or Francis Grose?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>Robert Klute wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, by Francis Grose (1731-1791)
>>>> First published in 1785, reprinted in 1811. This is from the 1811
>>>> edition (courtesy of Project Gutenberg)
>>>>
>>>> SPATCH COCK. [Abbreviation of DISPATCH COCK.] A hen just
>>>> killed from the roost, or yard, and immediately skinned,
>>>> split, and broiled: an Irish dish upon any sudden occasion.
>
> The Oxford English Dictionary does not agree with the assertion that a
> hen is not a cock: "The word hens is also used in some connexions as =
> 'domestic fowls' without regard to sex."

I've no problem with the OED, but practice (until modern poultry raising
became widespread) was to eat young cocks (roosters) and save hens for
laying eggs, since 1 rooster insured fertilization of many hens, the same
approach as was widely practiced with beef cattle.

Certainly, in the 18th/19th centuries, the chickensd being roasted were
"cocks", while hens past the laying stage were for the stew/stock pots.

In an interesting sidelight, "cock" has generally referred to the male sex
organ, while in the 50s, in parts of the US South, "cock" for some unknown,
inexplicable cause also was used to describe the female genitalia...

TMO