chook

English

From Irish English chuck (call made to poultry or pigs), from Irish tsiug, tsiuc. Compare English buck buck.

chook (plural chooks)

(Australia, New Zealand, informal) A chicken, especially a hen.
- 2005, Don Burke, The Complete Burke′s Backyard: The Ultimate Book of Fact Sheets‎^[1], page 683:
  Worm chickens once every three months and, if an occasional lice problem occurs, spray the inside of the chook shed with Coopex.
- 2006, Judith Brett, The Chook in the Australian Unconscious, in Peter Beilharz, Robert Manne, Reflected Light: La Trobe Essays, page 329,
  This little book, with its meticulous pencil drawings of chooks in mechanical contraptions and photos to show the machine in operation with a white leghorn called Gregory Peck, is evidence of both the sadism inspired by the chook′s comparatively flightless fate and the laughter we use to defend ourselves against the knowledge of that sadism.
- 2011, Helen Maczkowiack, An Awkward Fit‎^[2], page 21:
  She decided to dig her way under the fence into their chook house and had great fun running around and biting the necks of about eight chooks and leaving them half-dead and bleeding. The neighbour was furious, and unfortunately it was Dad′s birthday, so when he arrived home from work, Mum said ‘Happy birthday and^[sic] darling. Guess what? Your dog has half-killed most of the neighbour′s chooks.
(Australia, New Zealand, informal) A cooked chicken; a chicken dressed for cooking.
(Australia, dated) A fool.
(Northern England) Affectionate name for someone, also a chicken, 'chooky egg': a chicken's egg.

chicken — see chicken

chook

(Australia) A call made to chickens.
An imitation of the call of a chicken.
- 1875 July 23, Sydney Punch, page 1, column 1:
  Chook, chook, quack, quack, / Cock-a-doodle-doo; / All the ducks and the fowls / Admire me, they do.

call made to chickens

Ultimately from Fula jukka. Compare Jamaican Creole and Bahamian Creole jook (“to stab”), Sranan Tongo dyuku (“to stab”), Grenadian Creole English djuck (“to stab”).

chook

From Proto-Semai *cooᵍŋ, from Proto-Mon-Khmer *ɟuk ~ *ɟuuk (“creeper; material for tying”). Cognate with Bahnar jŭk (“trigger wire”), Old Mon juk (“creeper; cord”), whence Mon ဇုက် (cɜ̀k, “string; cord; rope”) and possibly Vietnamese chạc.

chook^[1]

^ Basrim bin Ngah Aching (2008) Kamus Engròq Semay – Engròq Malaysia, Kamus Bahasa Semai – Bahasa Malaysia, Bangi: Institut Alam dan Tamadun Melayu, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia