Meanings
gallicide1
- uncountableThe killing of a chicken, especially the former sport of cock-throwing; or, humorously, the killing of a Frenchman.
"Smith had no idea that gallicide would soon become a regular staple of the global poultry trade."
2007, Andrew Nikiforuk, Pandemonium: How Globalization and Trade are Putting the World at Risk, page 94 more examples
"A Cock has the Misfortune to be called in Latin by the same Word which signifies a Frenchman: So that nothing could so well represent, or be represented by the One as the Other.... Gallicide, or Cock-Throwing, was first introduced by way of contempt to the French, and to exasperate the Minds of the People against that Nation..."
1737, “An Enquiry into the original Meaning of Cock-Throwing on Shrove-Tuesday”, in The Gentleman's Magazine, volume VII, pages 6–7"Gallicide, or cock-throwing, the brutal custom of battering or pelting with sticks or stones a cock tied to a stake, is supposed to have originated in the time of King Edward the Third, when England and France appear to have indulged in provocations of more than ordinary resentment. The latin word gallus, by a vile pun, was equally expressive of a Frenchman and a cock; and poor chanticleer was doomed, as in effigy, to suffer the barbarities metaphorically intended for our continental neighbors."
1855, Jacob Henry Burn, A Descriptive Catalogue of the London Traders, Tavern, and Coffee-house Tokens Current in the Seventeenth Century, London: Arthur Taylor, page 82"To paraphrase the ecologist Garett Hardin: If an embryo or fetus is a human being, then an acorn is an oak tree, and an egg a chicken. Scrambling an egg is then gallicide, and crushing acorns, deforestation."
1986, Carl Djerassi, “Abortion in the United States: politics or policy?”, in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, volume 42, number 4, page 41"-cide: the killing or destruction of; or a killer of; or related to the killing of... [gallicide] fowl, especially chicken or turkeys; also gallinicide"
2002, Chris Aldrich, The Aldrich Dictionary of Phobias and Other Word Families, Trafford Publishing, page 13
Gallicide2
- uncountableThe chemical phenylmercury monoethanolammonium acetate, used for the control of slime-forming bacteria in pulp and paper mills.
On the other hand, Gallicide, being a liquid, may be added at any point […]
1950, L. D. Post, Paper Mill News: News Magazine of the Paper and Pulp Industry, volume 73, page 122 more examples
For the control of slime-forming bacteria, slug additions of organo-mercurials (Gallicide, Puratized SC or PMA) and Preventol GDC (a dichlorodiphenyl compound) will prove effective.
1952, Institute of Paper Chemistry, Abstract Bulletin, volume 23, Wisconsin: Appleton, page 668[…] phenylmercurymonoethal-ammonium acetate (sold under the trade name of Gallicide).
1952, James P. Casey, “Pulping and Papermaking”, in Pulp and Paper: Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Interscience Publishers, page 688
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
Cite this entry
gallicide. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gallicide
“gallicide.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gallicide. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “gallicide,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gallicide.
Source: gallicide on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.