Plural of fowl; birds that are raised for food, eggs, or feathers, like chickens, ducks, or turkeys.
From Old English 'fugol' meaning bird, related to German 'Vogel.' The word originally referred to any bird, but narrowed over time to domesticated barnyard birds used by humans.
The word 'fowl' stuck around for farmyard birds while most other Anglo-Saxon bird names got replaced by French words after 1066—that's why we say 'pork' (French) instead of 'pig' (English) for the meat, but still say 'fowl' for the bird itself!
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