rooster vs. cock

[simplythebest]

Hello,

I used "rooster' in one of my tests, and my teacher of English told me that "rooster" is used only in American English.
Some dictionaries say it is used mainly in AE, so I understand that it is accepted in Br.E. as well, is it not?
I need to know whether in contemporary British English it is used for I heard it quite often and I need to to tell my teacher.

Thank you,
simplythebest

[Josef]

Rooster is in my Concise Oxford Dictionary (and labelled as "especially N. American, Australian etc") but (speaking as a Britisher ) I don't think I have ever used or heard the word used in British English contexts.

[simplythebest]

Hi,

Thank you for your reply.
I'd only like to tell you that I found 'rooster' in BE contexts at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4248987.stm
Asia heralds Year of the Rooster
There was a party atmosphere in Beijing on Wednesday
Communities across Asia have been celebrating the lunar new year and the start of the Year of the Rooster. Another one at:
Fair Trade Rooster Watering Can (I'd like one myself, only it's out od stock )
http://www.guardianecostore.co.uk/Guard ... Group=4314
There's this famous rock band "Atomic Rooster"...

The reason why I avoided 'cock' is that the English we as EFL speakers listen to more often than not is American English, and, to make things worse, it's the AE one listens to in films where BE 'cock' is, again, used with its toboo / offensive meaning
As an EFL teacher, there are times when you have to take into consideration the fact that otherwise inofensive words have come to be associated by our students mainly with their taboo shades of meaning...
This could be a most interesting subject for a psycholinguitics study, don't you think?

Thank you again,
simplythebest

[hermit]

it might be said that both the rooster and the cock have a vital presence in the hennery.

several british neighbors here in nova scotia say 'rooster', but mentioned that the term in uk was 'cock'. in the u.s. certainly 'rooster is preferred.

[NikolaiJames]

Rooster is definitely the word to use in America when talking about this animal (as mentioned before, "cock" can have an offensive meaning). I think that the only time that the word "cock" is commonly used for this animal is in the phrase "cock-fight" (a rooster fight).

[Tukanja]

Watcha cock, how's things!

Watcha rooster,..

[pedagog]

Rooster was devised by the Puritans shortly before many of them left England to seek religious freedom in North America. This accounts for it never catching on in England. In seeking to avoid cock, which had already gained a slang use in England, they shortened the term "roosting cock". Many other male birds can be called a cock, but only a male chicken is called a rooster. Some Americans call a small chicken that is destined for the table a "frying hen" or a "fryer".

[pedagog]

By the way, rooster isn't purely American. It is chiefly American. The British Museum site chose to use the word in an article:

http://www.bl.uk/learning/cult/bodies/ruysch/curiosities.html