cockerel
(ˈkɒkərəl)
Forms: 5 coker-, kokerelle, 6 cokerel, cockrelle, 6–7 cocke-, cockrell, 6–8 cockrel, 7–8 cockeril(l, 6– cockerel.
[app. a dim. of cock n.1, perh. of Anglo-Fr. origin. No such word is found in the OF. dictionaries, though Littré and Godefroy have coquereau, -elle, -et, -ette, -ille, diminutives of similar type from coque shell, and coque vessel, also cocherel, cokerel cock-seller, poultry-dealer. But the formation may have been English; the termination seems to be the same as in hoggerel, mongrel, pickerel (small pike).]
1. A young cock. arch. or dial.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 86 Cokerelle, gallus [C. gallimellus]. 1465 Mann. & Househ. Exp. (1841) 296 Item, she paid for yonge kokerelles to make of capons, ix.d. 1533 Elyot Cast. Helthe (1541) 20 a, Chickens..specially if they be cockrelles. 1622 Wither Vanity of Youth (1633) 756 Hear how each Cockrell gives warning of day. 1725 Bailey Erasm. Colloq. 41 If you can't crow like an old cock, crow like a cockeril. 1798 Bloomfield Farmer's Boy, Autumn 343 Many a clamorous Hen and cockrel gay. 1868 Browning Ring & Bk. i. 1204 Both eyes shut, like the cockerel that would crow. |
2. fig. Applied to a young man.
| 1571 R. Edwards Damon & Pithias in Hazl. Dodsley IV. 68 Alas, pretty cockerel, you are too weak. 1610 Shakes. Temp. ii. i. 31. 1639 Massinger Unnat. Combat v. i, Page. Let me fight for my mistress! Servant. 'Tis in vain, Little cockerel of the kind. 1878 Tennyson Q. Mary i. i. 7 Thou'rt no such cockerel thyself, for thou was born i' the tail end of old Harry the Seventh. |
3. A species of fish.
| 1708 Motteux Rabelais iv. lx. (1737) 246 Cockrells..Thornbacks. 1883 Fisheries Exhib. Catal. 347 Basket for fishing ox-eyed cockerel, Valencia. |
4. attrib. and Comb.
| 1605 Chapman All Fooles Plays 1873 I. 168 Their intercourse..of glances that past betwixt this cockrill-drone and her. 1807–8 W. Irving Salmag. xv. (1860) 354 He..ranted, like a true cockerel orator. 1856 Olmsted Slave States 520 The ridiculous cockerel-like manner in which they swell, strut, bluster, and bully. |