Meaning & Analysis
The phrase humorously suggests that someone is guilty of 'committing poultry,' which is a play on words implying lechery or womanizing (as clarified in the historical note: 'a wencher').
Insights
Euphemism for Licentiousness
Uses the term 'poultry' as a comic euphemism for promiscuity or sexual misconduct, especially of a man who pursues women indiscriminately.
Animalistic Desire
Compares lascivious human behavior to that of farmyard fowl, whose indiscriminate mating habits were well observed and popularly referenced.
Historical Symbolism
The term draws on the tradition of using animal metaphors to discuss human sexuality indirectly, avoiding explicit language while still conveying the point. Chickens and roosters—well-known for their mating habits—become stand-ins for human lechery.
Cultural Resonance
Similar wordplay appears in many languages, using barnyard humor or animal references to talk about taboo subjects, often as a form of social satire or mockery.
Psychological Dimensions
Such euphemisms serve both to veil and to ridicule sexual behavior, balancing amusement with implicit censure, and revealing cultural discomfort with direct discussion of sexuality.
Rhetorical Devices
Pun
The proverb hinges on a pun, using 'commit poultry' as a humorous twist on the more serious-sounding 'commit adultery.'
Euphemism
Employs a comic substitution to soften or obscure the true nature of the misconduct, making the proverb suitable for more polite or playful conversation.
Metaphor
Describes a man's sexual exploits as analogous to barnyard poultry, broadening the phrase’s humor and allusiveness.
Transcription
Quotations
*A wencher.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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