different between mullet vs pullet

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?m?l?t/, /?m?l?t/
• Rhymes: -?l?t
• Rhymes: -?l?t

Etymology 1

Wikispecies From Old French mulet (now ‘grey mullet’), from Latin mullus (“red mullet”), from Ancient Greek ?????? (múllos).

Noun

mullet (plural mullets or mullet)

1. A fish of the family Mullidae (order Syngnathiformes), especially the genus Mullus (the red mullets or goatfish).
2. (especially US) A fish of the family Mugilidae (order Mugiliformes) (the grey mullets).
3. (US) Any of several species of freshwater fish in the sucker family (especially in the genus Moxostoma, the redhorses)

Synonyms

• (Mugillidae): haarder
• (Mugillidae): springer

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

Or mullethead, possibly derived from the fish (see Etymology 1) or from mull (meaning to stupefy) though neither is certain.

Noun

mullet (plural mullets)

1. A fool

Etymology 3

1994 US. Coined and popularized by hip hop group the Beastie Boys in their song "Mullet Head".

Noun

mullet (plural mullets)

1. A hairstyle where the hair is kept short on the top and sides and long at the back.
   • 1994, Beastie Boys "Mullet Head"

     – Mullet head, don't touch the back

     – Cut the sides, don't touch the back

   • 2008, Danielle Corsetto, Girls With Slingshots 406

     – Maybe it's a curly fro.

     – Maybe every day is bad hair day!

     – Maybe it's a mullet!

2. (slang) A person who mindlessly follows a fad, a trend, or a leader.

Synonyms

• hockey hair

Derived terms

• skullet

Translations

Etymology 4

From Old French molette (“rowel”)

Noun

mullet (plural mullets)

1. (heraldry) A star with straight edges and usually with five or six points.
2. The rowel of a spur.

Coordinate terms

• estoile

References

Portuguese

Etymology

From English mullet.

Noun

mullet m (plural mullets)

1. mullet (men’s hairstyle that is long in the back and short in the front)

English

Etymology

From Middle English polet, pulet, from Anglo-Norman pullet, Old French poulet (“young chicken”); polette (“young hen”), from poule (“hen”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?p?l?t/
• Rhymes: -?l?t

Noun

pullet (plural pullets)

1. A young hen, especially one less than a year old. [from 14th c.]
   • 1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, I.11:

     They died not because the Pullets would not feed: but because the Devil foresaw their death, he contrived that abstinence in them.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society 1973, p. 588:

     The dinner-hour being arrived, Black George carried her up a pullet, the squire himself [...] attending the door.

   • 1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska 2005, p. 187:

     he recommended that the patient [...] should be fed with chicken broth, and suggested that as all the poultry had gone to roost, Maggie would find a fat young pullet an easy capture.

   • 1928, Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, Penguin 2013, p. 195:

     The writer complained that a fox had been the night before and killed three more of his pullets […].

2. (slang) A spineless person; a coward.
3. (obsolete, slang) A young girl.

Related terms

• poultry

Translations

References

• (young girl): 1873, John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary