(you ain't no) Spring Chicken

Posted by Masakim on August 30, 2002

In Reply to: (you ain't no) Spring Chicken posted by Gary Martin on August 30, 2002

: :
: : I don't see this in the list. Is this forum the appropriate way to suggest a phrase be researched and added in?

: Researched yes; added maybe.

: This appears to originate in 1711 when published in the Spectator. "You ought to consider you are now past a chicken; this Humour, which was well enough in a Girl, is insufferable in one of your Motherly Character".

spring chicken 1 A young inexperienced person. Alkways used in "no spring chicken." 1907 [1894]: "I was no spring chicken in the way of the world...." Jack London, _My Life_. c1880. 2 A Young woman. Always in "[she's] no spring chicken." The most common use.
From _Dictionary of American Slang_ by H. Wentworth & S.B. Flexner
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Spring chicken. A young person. The phrase is usually found in the negative, as 'She's no spring chicken.' The implication is that she has reached an age when she is no longer a chick. A spring chicken is a young fowl ready for eating, which was originally in the spring. The expression is of US origin and dates from the early years of the 20th century.
From Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable by Adrian Room
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She wasn't a Spring chicken, by any means, yet she wasn't old. (_Daily Mail_, 1914)