chick

Distinctions

efroach (אפרוח)

Four times in Tanach: twice in the shiluach haken passage (Devarim 22:6-7), then Iyov 39:30 and Tehillim 84:4; three times in the Mishnah (Shabbos 18:2, Eduyos 4:2, Chullin 12:3). Menachem Ibn Saruk takes it as the sole derivative of a four-letter root א-פ-ר-ח; Ibn Janach and Radak read the root as פ-ר-ח, "to grow, to flower," the root of perach, a flower. Ibn Ezra (to Devarim 22:6) says outright that the aleph is not part of the root. Ibn Janach: the efroach looks as though it sprouted out of its egg. Radak and Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim: it is named for the growing it still has ahead of it before it flowers into a mature bird. Rabbi Aharon Marcus reduces the root to the two-letter core פ-ר, spawning off into segments. Rav Hirsch (to Bereishis 16:11) groups it with para, pere, parah, bara, barach and barah, all turning on unhindered movement and so on growth.

gozal (גוזל)

Twice in Tanach, at Bereishis 15:9 (the Covenant Between the Pieces) and Devarim 32:11 (the eagle hovering over its young), and several times in the Mishnah (Bikkurim 3:5, Shekalim 8:5 and 9:1, Bava Metzia 1:4 and 2:3, Kinnim 2:1, Taharos 8:6). Root ג-ז-ל, the root of gezel, theft. By tradition the gozal Avraham was told to take was a dove (Bereishis Rabbah 44:14, Targum Onkelos to Bereishis 15:9), since besides the pigeon that is the only bird fit for offerings, and that covenant was a sort of offering (see Ibn Ezra there). Ibn Janach and Radak (each in his Sefer HaShorashim): gozal primarily means a young dove, but the sense widened to any young bird, which is how it can be a young eagle at Devarim 32:11. Rabbi Yehonasan HaKohen of Lunel: in Biblical Hebrew gozal is simply a dove, as yonah is, while efroach is a young bird of no particular species; in Rabbinic Hebrew gozal shifted slightly, to a young dove specifically. The article observes that his account leaves the eagle verse out of the reckoning, and guesses that he may have taken that usage as merely borrowed rather than as a real shift in the word's sense. It adds the further observation that gozal, on this showing, carries both "dove" and "stealing," much as yonah is explained by some as tied to ona'ah, cheating or verbal abuse. On the tie to theft, Rabbi Yehuda Aryeh Leib of Carpentras: this dove steals from other people's fields. Rav Hirsch (to Shemos 23:19): the hatchling begins as its mother's charge, and when it matures enough to leave the nest it "steals" itself away from her.

A cryptic remark of Ibn Ezra at Devarim 32:11 on how gozal and efroach relate is read three ways: Rabbi Yitzchak Sarim, that gozal is not only a young eagle but any young bird; Rabbi Shlomo Kohen of Lissa, that gozal is synecdoche, naming both the whole set (young birds) and one part of it (a certain dove); and Rabbi Dr. Asher Weiser (editor of the Mossad HaRav Kook edition of Ibn Ezra on Chumash), that the two are plain synonyms.

Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky and Rabbi Shmuel Ashkenazi argue that the two words mark two stages in a small bird's maturing: the efroach still needs its mother and cannot yet fly, while the gozal is a little older, no longer needs its mother, and can already fly in some limited way. Rabbi Ashkenazi himself points to a place that cuts against it: the Tosefta (Chullin 10:2) uses efroach of a young bird that no longer needs its mother and can already fly.

A different approach is found in an article of the Academy of the Hebrew Language and another by Dr. Moshe Raanan of Herzog College. They explain that in earlier times the two terms were indeed synonymous, but that Modern Hebrew separates them on a zoological line: an efroach is a nidifugous bird, out of the egg already feathered and able to leave the nest at once because it can feed itself, like chickens and geese, while a gozal is a nidicolous bird, born featherless and fed by its mother, like most songbirds, which must stay in the nest until it is developed enough to go out on its own. On their reading the two words are not two stages in one bird's growth but two kinds of bird.

pargit (פרגית)

Rabbinic only: Berachos 39b, Bava Metzia 24b, Bereishis Rabbah 18:17, Vayikra Rabbah 34:14, Perek Shirah ch. 4. A young chicken. Rabbi Nosson of Rome (Sefer HeAruch) ties it to the Arabic fyruj; Rabbi Ernest Klein traces it instead to the Greek pterix, a wing or winged creature, which he takes back in turn to the Proto-Indo-European root pet-, to fly, the source also of the English feather, fetter, partridge, pterodactyl and helicopter. In Modern Hebrew it has drifted to mean cuts of chicken meat, which is not the Rabbinic sense.

nipol (ניפול)

From the Mishnah at Bava Basra 2:6 (see 23b): a young bird found near a dovecote, which the finder may keep if it was more than fifty amos away. Rashi glosses nipol as a gozal, though the article cautions that this does not make the two terms synonymous. The Mainz commentary ascribed to Rabbeinu Gershom, and Rambam in his commentary to the Mishnah, define it as a bird that fell from its cote, cognate with nofel; some vocalize it naful/nafil, "the fallen one" (Melechess Shlomo, and the Kaufmann manuscript). Rabbi Shlomo Ganzfried, on the strength of Chullin 65a, takes nipol as a species of grasshopper rather than a bird at all.

Rendering guidance

• אפרוח in the shiluach haken passage: "hatchling," or "fledgling" if the context needs a word that also covers eggs' issue generally. Do not write "chick"; it pulls toward barnyard poultry and loses the flowering image the root carries.
• גוזל standing alone in Chumash: "young dove" at Bereishis 15:9 (Bereishis Rabbah 44:14 and Targum Onkelos both identify it as a dove there), "fledgling" at Devarim 32:11, where the bird is an eagle.
• Trap: English "fledgling" will absorb both efroach and gozal. If a passage turns on the pair, follow Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky and Rabbi Shmuel Ashkenazi and render efroach as the younger stage ("hatchling," still nest-bound) and gozal as the older ("fledgling," flying a little). Rabbi Ashkenazi himself notes a counter-case: Tosefta Chullin 10:2 uses efroach for a bird that already flies and no longer needs its mother, so do not force the distinction where the source does not want it.
• Where Targum Yonasan renders efroach as gozal (Devarim 22:6) while Targum Onkelos keeps efroach, do not flatten the two Targumim into one English word; the divergence is itself the datum.
• פרגית: "young chicken," never "pargit" untranslated and never the modern restaurant sense.
• ניפול: "a fallen nestling," with the halachic sense supplied; "small bird" loses the falling that defines the case.

Sources

Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Ki Saytzei: Flowering Chicklings," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 14 Elul 5782 (2022-09-10); raw text at sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/9906-ki-saytzei-flowering-chicklings.md. Primary loci cited: Devarim 22:6-7 (efroach, twice), Iyov 39:30, Tehillim 84:4; Shabbos 18:2, Eduyos 4:2, Chullin 12:3; Bereishis 15:9 and Devarim 32:11 (gozal), with Bikkurim 3:5, Shekalim 8:5 and 9:1, Bava Metzia 1:4 and 2:3, Kinnim 2:1, Taharos 8:6; Ibn Ezra to Devarim 22:6 and 32:11; Ibn Janach and Radak, Sefer HaShorashim; Rav Hirsch to Bereishis 16:11 and Shemos 23:19; Bereishis Rabbah 44:14; Tosefta Chullin 10:2; Bava Basra 2:6 and 23b with Rashi, Rabbeinu Gershom and Rambam; Chullin 65a; Berachos 39b, Bava Metzia 24b, Bereishis Rabbah 18:17, Vayikra Rabbah 34:14, Perek Shirah ch. 4. The article's modern-zoological section (an Academy of the Hebrew Language piece and Dr. Moshe Raanan of Herzog College, distinguishing nidifugous efroach from nidicolous gozal) and Rabbi Ernest Klein's Proto-Indo-European derivation of pargit are reported here as the article gives them.