pullus

English

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Latin pullus.

Pronunciation

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Noun

pullus (plural pulli)

1. (ornithology) A chick; a young bird in the downy stage.

References

• “pullus”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Dutch

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Latin pullus. Doublet of pul.

Pronunciation

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Noun

pullus m (plural pulli)

1. (ornithology) A pullus; the young chick of a bird.

   Synonym: kuiken

   Hyponyms: nesteling, takkeling

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈpul.lus/,
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈpul.lus/,

Etymology 1

Disputed; two etymologies are plausible:

• From Proto-Italic *polnos, from Proto-Indo-European *polH-on- (“offspring, (animal) young”); compare Ancient Greek πῶλος (pôlos, “foal; young girl”), Proto-Germanic *fulô (“foal”), Albanian pjellë (“child”) and pelë (“mare”), Old Armenian ուլ (ul, “kid, fawn”). The verbal root is likely found in Albanian pjell (“to beget”), which implies a connection to pellō (“to drive, push”), from Proto-Indo-European *pelh₂- with a semantic shift of “to push (out)” > “to beget”, if not a distinct root *pelH- (“to give birth”).
• From Proto-Indo-European *put-, also found in Latin putus (“boy”), Proto-Indo-Iranian *putrás (“boy”) and perhaps Sanskrit पोत (pota, “young animal”) (which would indicate *pewt-), Lithuanian putýtis (“young bird, young animal”). De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *putslos, which he considers a variant of *putlos (“boy”). The presence of an earlier apical consonant in the stem in Latin is evidenced by the -s- in the diminutive adjective pusillus. Some authors connect these to the root *peh₂w- (“small”) (compare Latin paulus, paullus (“small”) and paucus (“little, few”), Old English fēaw (“little, few”)), but the morphology is unclear and the complete disappearance of the laryngeal is hard to explain.

Noun

pullus m (genitive pullī); second declension

2. a young animal
   1. chick, chicken
   2. foal
4. (term of endearment) darling

Declension

Second-declension noun.

Derived terms

Descendants

From derivations:

Unsorted:

Borrowings

References

Etymology 2

Probably from Proto-Indo-European *polHwós (maybe a weak form of *pélHus) or *polHnós, from the root *pelH- (“pale, gray”), thereby related to palleō, though the formal details are debated.

Adjective

pullus (feminine pulla, neuter pullum); first/second-declension adjective

2. dark-colored, dark gray; dusky

Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

See also

References

Further reading

• “pullus, i, m.”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “pullus, a, um”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “pullus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• pullus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• pullus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “pullus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers