# Origin of slang term "chick"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 28, 2001, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-slang-term-chick/78518 "2001-08-28T14:19:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![no.1squoog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/50afbb/32.png) [@no.1squoog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/no.1squoog)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2001, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-slang-term-chick/78518/1 "2001-08-28T14:19:41Z")
Does anyone out there know why or how the term “chick” came to be used to denote young women? Just curious… ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2001, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-slang-term-chick/78518/2 "2001-08-28T14:59:44Z")
This is just a guess but I think it might come from spanish. Chica is spanish for girl and an english speaker would tend to say that as chicka and then somewhere along the line the a gets dropped ending up with chick. I have had friends from California who say that this expression is widely used there, and California has a higher percentage of Spanish speakers. ---
**Author:** ![5-HT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/f19dbf/32.png) [@5-HT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5-HT)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2001, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-slang-term-chick/78518/3 "2001-08-28T15:01:33Z")
I’m pretty sure it was started by infamous womanizer and pornographer Jack Chick. well maybe not. seriously though, I wonder if it has a common ancestor with the british slang of refering to women as “birds”. ---
**Author:** ![JeffB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeffb/32/188_2.png) [@JeffB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JeffB)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2001, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-slang-term-chick/78518/4 "2001-08-28T15:07:23Z")
The OED says **chick** is of U.S. origin, with the first written citation from 1927 (in _Elmer Gantry_). ---
**Author:** ![Wumpus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8c91f0/32.png) [@Wumpus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wumpus)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2001, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-slang-term-chick/78518/5 "2001-08-28T15:09:58Z")
I suppose it could also be an offshoot of “bird.” Chick = young bird. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2001, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-slang-term-chick/78518/6 "2001-08-28T15:53:03Z")
I think it was originally “Chicken”. Groucho Marx once said that brother Chico got that nickname because he was a renowned “Chickenchaser”, or successful pursuer of women. _Chico_, BTW was originally spelled _Chicko_, and always pronounced that way by the brothers. I’m pretty sure that the famous card game in which the Marx Brothers received those names was before 1927. ---
**Author:** ![jonfromdenver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/82dd89/32.png) [@jonfromdenver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jonfromdenver)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2001, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-slang-term-chick/78518/7 "2001-08-28T16:17:22Z")
i agree with **puddleglum** in that it comes from spanish. just a hunch, but all the mexicans around here can’t stop hitting on the white girls (just ask me, i’m hispanic, and my girlfriend and all my in-laws are whiter than snow) so i would think it comes from chica. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-slang-term-chick/78518/8 "2001-08-29T02:45:21Z")
Enough with the guesses. We did this before [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=45472) The first cite that Lighter gives in print which uses “chick” in the manner which we know today would be from T.A. Dorgan, the famous cartoonist and popularizer of much slang around the turn of the century. In a cartoon from 1910, the caption reads _Some swell chicks out today–I’ll stroll along._ Lighter also cites it from 1899 meaning the same thing but the context was not as blatantly clear. The term “chick” to simply mean a young girl or woman goes back in print to 1677 meaning a young woman. It was evidently not uncommon as Standard English but used prior to the late 1800’s “only in direct address as an endearment for a young girl.” **Wumpus** had that right. The Spanish origin is not supported. Neither is Marx.