pullus

Unadapted borrowing from Latin pullus.

pullus (plural pulli)

1. (ornithology) A chick; a young bird in the downy stage.

Unadapted borrowing from Latin pullus. Doublet of pul.

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pullus m (plural pulli)

1. (ornithology) A pullus; the young chick of a bird.

   Synonym: kuiken

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈpul.lus/, [ˈpʊlːʲʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈpul.lus/, [ˈpulːus]

Disputed; two etymologies are plausible:

• From Proto-Italic *polnos, from Proto-Indo-European *polH-on- (“animal young”); compare Ancient Greek πῶλος (pôlos), Proto-Germanic *fulô (“foal”), Albanian pelë (“mare”), Old Armenian ուլ (ul, “kid, fawn”);
• From Proto-Indo-European *put-, also found in Latin putus (“boy”), Proto-Indo-Iranian *putrás (“boy”) and perhaps Sanskrit पोत (pota, “young animal”) (which would indicate *pewt-), Lithuanian putýtis (“young bird, young animal”). De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *putslos, which he considers a variant of *putlos (“boy”). The presence of an earlier apical consonant in the stem in Latin is evidenced by the -s- in the diminutive adjective pusillus.[1] Some authors connect these to the root *peh₂w- (“small”) (compare Latin paucus, Old English fēaw (“little, few”)), but the morphology is unclear and the complete disappearance of the laryngeal is hard to explain.

pullus m (genitive pullī); second declension

1. a young animal
   1. chick, chicken
   2. foal
2. (term of endearment) darling

Second-declension noun.

From derivations:

Unsorted:

Borrowings

Related to palleō. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

pullus (feminine pulla, neuter pullum); first/second-declension adjective

1. dark-colored, dark gray; dusky

First/second-declension adjective.

• “pullus, i, m.”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “pullus, a, um”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “pullus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• pullus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• pullus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
• “pullus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers