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ClarissaMach · Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:08 pm Post subject: Chick/Chicken referring to woman

Sometimes, watching TV, I see people referring to women by the words "Chick" or "chicken" (I might be wrong, but it sounds like this. Please, correct me asap If I'm saying something dumb!!!).

I believe it's a slang, but I guess it doesn't sound rude in America. I remember having heard these words in two different contexts: the first was Lost TV show (I'm totally addicted to it!), when a character named Sawyer referred to Bernard's wife, Rose ("Black chicken, around 50 years old?"); the other was a CSI episode when one of the forensic members described the way a girl had died ("the chicken must have fell down. . .).

It sounds strange to me because calling a woman of chicken in Brazil ("galinha") is the same of calling her a b i. . . well, I don't need to write the entire word, do I?
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CP · Joined: 12 Jun 2006 Posts: 2875 Location: California

Probably you heard "chick" in all those contexts.

A chick is a baby chicken, and at least since the 1950s in the U.S., at least, it has been slang for a woman, usually a young woman. It's not politically correct to call women chicks, but it is a much nicer term than the b-word or the w-word by far.

Often it is actually a compliment. You don't call an undesirable woman a chick, and often what you hear is "cute chick," "nice chick," or "cool chick." Although sometimes you'll hear, "Wow, that is one ugly chick." (Sorry. I'm just reporting here.)

One of the rarely heard Beatles tunes from their early days is "Three Cool Cats." A cat is a guy; a chick is a girl. The song talks about three cool cats driving around, and three cool chicks walking around, and of course the cats see the chicks and like them.

Well, they looked like angels from up above,
And three cool cats really fell in love,
But three cool chicks made three fools of
Three cool cats.

I understand that chicken in Chinese means prostitute, and I wouldn't be surprised if it means other things in other languages.
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