different between chick vs chico

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English chicke, chike, variation of chiken (“chicken", also "chick”), from Old English ?icen, ?ycen (“chicken”). Sense of "young woman" dates to at least 1860 (compare chit (“young, pert woman”)). More at chicken.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t???k/
• Rhymes: -?k

Noun

chick (plural chicks or (obsolete) chicken)

1. A young bird.

   Synonym: fledgling

   Coordinate term: birdlet

2. A young chicken.
3. (dated, endearing) A young child.
5. (colloquial, sometimes derogatory) A young, typically attractive, woman or teenage girl.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:girl, Thesaurus:woman
6. (military, slang) A friendly fighter aircraft.
   • 2004, Joe Welzen, The Gutsy Stomach Walker (page 50)

     The Aldis lamp flashes at the underside of each aircraft. It shows that the gear is down. Diegal is relaxing. This is such low responsibility, easy night duty. All the “chicks” (fighter aircraft) are home to roost except one.

Derived terms

• chick flick
• chickfriend
• chick lit
• chick magnet

Translations

Verb

chick (third-person singular simple present chicks, present participle chicking, simple past and past participle chicked)

1. (obsolete) To sprout, as seed does in the ground; to vegetate.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Chalmers to this entry?)

Etymology 2

From Hindi ???? f (ciq) and Urdu ??? f (ciq), ultimately from Persian ??? f (ciq).

Noun

chick (plural chicks)

1. (India, Pakistan) A screen or blind made of finely slit bamboo and twine, hung in doorways or windows.
   • 1890, Rudyard Kipling, Letter to William Canton, 5 April, 1890, in Sandra Kemp and Lisa Lewis (eds.) Writings on writing by Rudyard Kipling, Cambridge University Press, 1996, p. 34, [1]

     Then, through a cautiously lifted chick, the old scene stands revealed […]

   • 1905, A. C. Newcombe, Village, Town, and Jungle Life in India, Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, Chapter VII p. 106, [2]

     It is not uncommon at meal-time to see the table servants chasing the sparrows about the room, endeavouring to drive them out while some one holds up the "chick" or bamboo net which covers the doorway.

   • 1934, George Orwell, Burmese Days, Chapter 2, [3]

     […] at this time of day all the verandas were curtained with green bamboo chicks.

   • 1999, Kevin Rushby, Chasing the Mountain of Light: Across India on the Trail of the Koh-i-Noor Diamond, New York: St. Martin's Press, Chapter 10, p. 216, [4]

     Outside I could hear the bamboo chick tapping on the door like a blind man's stick on a kerbstone.

Synonyms

• chick-blinds

Derived terms

• chicked

Yola

Etymology

From Middle English chike, from Old English ?icen. Cognate with English chick, and Scots schik.

Noun

chick

1. chicken

References

• Jacob Poole (1867) , William Barnes, editor, A glossary, with some pieces of verse, of the old dialect of the English colony in the baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, J. Russell Smith, ?ISBN

English

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Spanish chico.

Noun

chico (plural chicos)

1. (Canada, US, informal) A Latin-American boy; a Latino.

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Spanish chicozapote (through a regional abbreviation), from Nahuatl xicotzapotl. Cognate of chicle.

Noun

chico (plural chicos)

1. The fruit of the sapodilla, Manilkara zapota.

Etymology 3

Perhaps from Spanish choclo, influded by chico.

Noun

chico (plural chicos)

1. (American Southwest, chiefly in the plural) Sweet corn that has been cooked and dried on the cob.

Portuguese

Noun

chico m (plural chicos)

1. (Brazil, regional, slang) ass (the anus)
2. (Brazil, regional, slang) period (menstruation)

Spanish

Etymology 1

Indirectly related to Latin ciccum (“insignificant thing; trifle”); found in several Romance languages as an expressive creation.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?t??iko/, [?t??i.ko]
• Hyphenation: chi?co

Adjective

chico (feminine chica, masculine plural chicos, feminine plural chicas)

1. small

   Synonym: pequeño

Descendants

• ? Papiamentu: chikí, chikitu

Noun

chico m (plural chicos, feminine chica, feminine plural chicas)

1. boy; kid

   Synonyms: cabro, chamaco, chaval, chavo, muchacho, niño

Usage notes

The noun chico is like most Spanish nouns with a human referent. The masculine forms are used when the referent is known to be male, a group of males, a group of mixed or unknown gender, or an individual of unknown or unspecified gender. The feminine forms are used if the referent is known to be female or a group of females.

Derived terms

Further reading

• “chico” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.

References

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Yucatec Maya chi?ik.

Noun

chico m (plural chicos)

1. (Mexico) white-nosed coati (Nasua Narica)
2. (Mexico) raccoon (Procyon lotor)

References

• Schoenhals, Louise C. (1988) A Spanish - English Glossary of Mexican Flora and Fauna?^[1], Instituto Lingüístico de Verano, page 583

Tagalog

Noun

chico

1. sapodilla fruit