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The word chick is a short form for chicken and its use in American slang to refer to a young woman is attributed to Sinclair Lewis' book Elmer Gantry (1927)

He had determined that marriage now would cramp his advancement in the church and that, anyway, he didn't want to marry this brainless little fluffy chick, who would be of no help in impressing rich parishioners. But that caution he had utterly forgotten in emotion, and her question was authentically a surprise, abominably a shock http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=Lewis+Sinclair

"Chick" = "[young] woman/girl" is cited in the Historical Dictionary of American Slang as being in use from 1899. [Much older: "chick" = "child".] "Bird" = "young woman" is cited in HDAS from 1838 and in use from 1848 in the U.S.A.

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