Hen and stag night

[markyhb]

Hi, a tradition exists where the Bride and Groom are taken out for a night/weekend before the wedding. These are called Hen and Stag nights respectively. Do you know why they are called "hen" and "stag"

Cheers
Mark

[shaneystar2]

The word stag hasn't always meant "male deer". In Middle English, stag (from the Old English stacga) could mean the adult male of any animal, especially if castrated (!). In the 19th century it was even used to mean a turkey-c*ck of two years or older. Thus, a stag-night or stag-dinner was a function attended by males only.

Similarly, in Middle English, hen could mean the female of any bird. Thus a hen night or hen party is one which is exclusively female.

Unlike stag, which meant any male animal, the Old English henn meant a fowl of either sex.

[Quizmonster]

I'm certainly not querying Shaney's fine answer, but I'll just add...'stag' was originally used in the USA as a noun in the early 1900s to refer specifically to a man unaccompanied by a woman at a function. Thereafter, it began to be used as an adjective, as in 'stag party' etc.
'Hen' has been used to refer to women since as far back as the 1600s. The actual phrase, 'hen party', however, did not appear anywhere before the 1960s. In 'party' terms both are purely 20th century creations.