How is a Pony like a Chicken?

Ever heard of the Grey Junglefowl? No? I hadn’t either. But it’s the ancestor of our chickens, apparently, and we owe our eggs and chicken soup to the deciduous forests of India, where the grey junglefowl roamed wild under the trees, scratching for the usual grubs and worms.

The word “poultry” has an interesting history. “Pullus” in Latin meant any young animal. “Pullus” came into French as “poulet,” a little fowl, and from “poulet” (which means “chicken in modern French), we got “pouleterie” or our “poultry,” plus, as a bonus, the word “pullet,” or young female chicken.

Strangely enough, the word “pony” also derives from “pullus,” but it came through French as “poulenet,” meaning “a young horse.” The Scottish got hold of it (the French and the Scots were closely connected) and brought it into Scottish dialect as “powney,” where it traveled across the Scottish border as “pony” in English. Now it means, not a young horse, but a small horse.