Etymologically speaking…
July 2025
Both chicken and egg can be traced back to their Proto-GermanicG roots (G is for glossary, below): *kiukīnan and *ajjazG. *kiukīnan is an imitation of the sound of a chicken, and *ajjaz probably comes from Proto-Indo-EuropeanG *o(w)yóm, which is the root of “egg” in several other languages, including Latin ōvum and Old CornishG uy.
But neither of these Proto-Germanic roots much resemble the words as we know them today. And the question is not whether the chicken or the egg has the oldest ancestor.
So, to ask a more sensible question:
Hwæt com ǣrest: se cicen oððe þæt ǣg?1
I have conducted a survey of native Modern English speakers to determine whether they can understand cīcen and ǣg. And since I won’t let a sample size of two get in the way of conclusive evidence, I can confidently say that 100% of native English speakers recognise both words, when they can read and hear them.
However, the pronunciation chee-chen2 is closer to the Modern English pronunciation than aag2 is. And egg got scrambled into Middle English eai/aei/ei, before being replaced with a northern (dialectal) word (eg/egge).
Therefore: because the unwaveringly recognisable chicken predates Westminster Abbey, I think it is only fair to conclude that the chicken came first.
Notes
1 Unfortunately, I don’t speak Old English, so this is an AI translation.
2 I aimed to transcribe my tenuous understanding of the pronunciation in a way that anybody could understand. It would have been more professional to write [t͡ʃiːt͡ʃɛn] and [aːg].
Glossary-cum-beginner’s-guide-to-historical-linguistics
Proto-Germanic: Humans, chimpanzees and monkeys all look quite similar, because they evolved from a common ancestor relatively recently. English, German and Dutch all look quite similar (I have bread / Ich habe Brot / Ik heb brood) because they evolved from a common ancestor language (Proto-Germanic) relatively recently.
Proto-Indo-Euoropean: Humans, dogs and weasels don’t look quite similar, because they evolved from a common ancestor much further back. English, French and Irish don’t look quite similar (I have bread / J’ai du pain / Tá arán agam), because they evolved from a common ancestor language (Proto-Indo-European) a few thousand years ago.
Asterisk: Neither Proto-Germanic nor Proto-Indo-European were ever written down. They are reconstructed languages. A reconstructed word is always indicated by an asterisk. Because languages evolve sound-by-sound, in a very regular fashion, there’s a good deal of certainty behind the reconstructions.
Old Cornish: Cornish is a Celtic language (like Gaelic and Welsh) that was spoken in Cornwall (South-East England) until 1799. Old Cornish is to Cornish what Chaucer is to Modern English.
Sources
Barnhart, R. K. (ed.) (1988). Chambers Dictionary of Etymology.
Birkett, T. and Koivisto-Kokko, V. Old English Online. ‘Old English Pronunciation Guide.’ Accessed 17/07/2025. Available at: https://oldenglish.info/advpronunciationguide.html
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