Buzz
Anyone who turns down a double-dog dare risks being branded a chicken. While it's unclear how dogs became part of dare traditions, the origin of calling cowards 'chickens' is a bit more straightforward.
The Oxford English Dictionary states that the first written use of 'chicken' as a term for coward appears in William Shakespeare’s Cymbeline, circa 1616. He wrote, "Forthwith they fly, Chickens,” describing soldiers retreating from battle.
However, as Grammarphobia reports, chickens were linked to cowardice long before the 17th century. A play from around 1450 referred to a coward as a “henne-harte,” and poet John Skelton compared some weak courtiers to “hen-hearted cuckolds” in his poem Why Come Ye Nat to Courte circa 1529. Hens were likely seen as particularly timid because roosters were often regarded as brave. In the mid-16th century, if you were a fearless leader or warrior, you might be called a “cock” (as a compliment). The term hen for cowardly or submissive individuals first appeared in the 1600s, often contrasting with cock.
Consider, for instance, the final stanza of a late 17th-century ballad titled Taylor’s Lamentation:
“Since then she holds such power, That I must obey her every hour. She is the Cock and I am the Hen, This is my fate, Oh! pity me then.”
The underlying sexism is hard to miss: Female chickens, like women, are depicted as submissive and timid, following the lead of their brave and dominant male counterparts. When the roles are reversed, the man becomes the pitiable figure. Thankfully, the more neutral term (since both hens and roosters are simply chickens) prevailed over time, although the exact reason is unclear. The term chicken meaning fool—which may have derived from the term goose-as-fool—began appearing in print around 1600. This suggests that the association with cowardice may have spread because the term was also useful as a more general insult.
