Mother hen
Mother hen is the name for a brooding hen or chick-leading hen of the domestic chicken .
etymology
The verb cluck is onomatopoeic for the sounds of several bird species, especially for the sounds of the hen when breeding or curls. According to Pfeifer's etymological dictionary it stands for: "' emit the sound gluck , brood' (from hens), transfer 'idle, dull sitting there' mhd. Cluck , chuckle , mnd. clap , mnl. clocking , nl. klokken , aengl . cloccian , engl. to cluck , Swedish klucka are of sound-imitating origin; see. corresponding formations such as Latin glōcīre and late Latin . clociāre , French glousser , Italian chiocciare as well as those listed under laughter […]. verbs that imitate aloud. In addition to the sound of the hen when brooding and luring the chicks and similar sounds from other birds, mimics chuckling and its derived iterative formations chuckle (15th century), (16th century) also sounds that chuckle when swallowing, belching or flowing Liquid emerge from a narrow area. " Glucke , North German and Northwest Middle High German also Klucke denotes a" 'brooding hen or hen carrying out chicks', late mhd. mnd. klucke "and represents a regression to the verb.
Figurative meanings
Glucken (so the well-known Krause Glucke ) are a genus of mushrooms and owe their name to the resemblance to a chicken that is grazing its chicks . The Duden describes the butterfly family of the hucklings as “moths with a plump, densely haired body and brown, yellow or gray colored wings”.
Literally , a mother hen or mother hen is a metaphor for a mother who overly cares for her children. In the Gospel of Matthew (23:37) Jesus relates the image of the mother hen to himself in the lamentation over Jerusalem: Jerusalem, you kill the prophets and stone the messengers who are sent to you. How often have I wanted to gather your children around me, like a hen takes her chicks under her wings; but you didn't want to. In their dictionary, the Brothers Grimm describe the meaning of the mother hen as a caring woman, especially mothers or a mother in a family jokingly and an older girl who likes to play with small children and a mother who many children run around .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c glucken in duden.de, accessed on September 3, 2013
- ↑ Mother hen. In: Digital dictionary of the German language . Retrieved September 3, 2013
- ↑ Mother hen. In: Jacob Grimm , Wilhelm Grimm (Hrsg.): German dictionary . tape 8 : Glibber – Gräzist - (IV, 1st section, part 5). S. Hirzel, Leipzig 1958 ( woerterbuchnetz.de ).