Other forms: hens
A hen is an adult female chicken. Keep hens, the hens are laying, a laying hen.
The male is a cockerel or a rooster, and a young female is a pullet. Hen also means the female of other birds — a hen harrier, a hen blackbird — which is the older and broader sense. A hen night or hen do is the party for a woman before her wedding, against the stag do. Note hen-pecked, meaning bullied by a wife, which is dated and unkind; and that hens live about six years and lay well for two.
1nounhenAn adult female chicken.
“Four hens produce about three eggs a day between them.”
2nounbirdThe female of other bird species.
“The hen sits and the male brings food for about a fortnight.”
hen is a female bird.
Old English henn is the feminine of hana, a cock, from a root meaning to sing — the male bird is named for crowing and the female for being his counterpart.
Proto-Indo-European
*keh₂n-
Proto-Indo-European
*kan-
Proto-Germanic
*hanjō — hen
Proto-West Germanic
*hannju
Old English
henn — hen
Middle English
hen
English, today
hen
Built from
From Middle English hen, from Old English henn (“hen”), from Proto-West Germanic hannju, from Proto-Germanic hanjō (“hen”), from Proto-Indo-European kan-, kana- (“to sing”). Cognate with stq Hanne (“hen”), West Frisian hin (“hen”), Dutch hen (“hen”), German Low German Heen (“hen”), German Henne (“hen”), Danish høne (“hen”), Swedish höna (“hen”), Icelandic hæna (“hen”). Related to Old English hana (“cock, rooster”). Also cognate to Latin cicōnia (“stork”), Latin canō (“to sing”), Russian каню́к (“buzzard”). Compare пету́х (“rooster, cock”) from петь (“to sing”). woman's penis after cock (“male chicken; man's penis”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA