A pullet is a young hen in the farm sense: a female chicken in her first year of laying eggs. She is past the fluffy chick stage, but she is not yet a full, mature hen. Pullet eggs are often smaller than the eggs of an older bird. You will meet the word on farms, in feed shops, and in careful talk about flocks — not usually at the dinner table, where people just say chicken. A young male is not a pullet; he is a cockerel. The word came from Anglo-Norman and Old French poulet, “young chicken,” from poule, “hen,” going back to Latin pullus, a young animal. It is an old farming word that never became city slang.