Relating to or resembling hens; hen-like in character or appearance.
From Old English 'henn' (hen) + '-y' (adjective-forming suffix). This archaic or dialectal adjective uses the productive '-y' suffix to turn nouns into descriptive adjectives, common in older English.
Words ending in '-y' are everywhere in English because the suffix is so productive and ancient—from 'sunny' to 'grumpy' to 'hendy', you can add '-y' to almost any noun and create a natural-sounding adjective, which is why people easily understand words they've never seen before.
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