Chicken Lights on Trucks

Those strings of amber lights on 18-wheelers are known as chicken lights. But why? Although the term’s origin is unclear, a participant in a discussion forum of the American Historical Truck Society suggests they may have been originally associated with trucks hauling Frank Perdue chickens. This is part of a complete episode.

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

1 comment
  • I’ve always assumed this came from the fact they were on the front of the truck. As in the lights you see when you’re “playing chicken.”

More from this show

Boodle on Beaver Island

A resident of Michigan’s scenic Beaver Island shares the term, boodling, which the locals use to denote the social activity of leisurely wandering the island, often with cold fermented beverages. There have been various proposed etymologies...