Arnold Zwicky's Blog

Found in the Beautiful Farmyard postcard set, an elegant photo of a Frizzle, a type of chicken. Here’s a collection of them:

(Photo by Ingrid Douglas.)

From Wikipedia:

A Frizzle is a type of chicken with feathers that curl outwards, rather than lying flat as in most chickens. While many consider the Frizzle to be an entirely separate breed, it is not. Chickens from all breeds may have a frizzled appearance. It is a variety within breeds, some with clean legs and others with feathering on the legs. Genetically, the frizzled gene is a dominant trait. As a result of its unusual look, Frizzles are primarily exhibition birds

Now on frizzle, the verb and noun, and their base frizz, verb and noun. NOAD2 on frizzle:

verb [with obj.]    form (hair) into tight curls.

noun   a tight curl in hair.

ORIGIN mid 16th cent.: from frizz + –le⁴

On –le⁴:

forming verbs, chiefly those expressing repeated action or movement (as in babble, dazzle), or having diminutive sense (as in nestle)

And on frizz:

verb [with obj.]   form (hair) into a mass of small, tight curls or tufts: her hair was frizzed up in a style that seemed matronly.

• [no obj.]    (of hair) form itself into such a mass: his hair had frizzed out symmetrically.

noun   the state of being formed into such a mass of curls or tufts: a perm designed to add curl without frizz.

ORIGIN late Middle English (in the sense ‘dress leather with pumice’): from French friser. The sense ‘form hair into a mass of curls’ dates from the late 16th cent.

This entry was posted on August 23, 2013 at 6:08 am and is filed under Language and animals, Names. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.