"Cow" (Plural: kine) is an ancient word with various spellings derived from Indo-European and has long been used to refer to cattle of either gender. The exclusively female use is relatively recent. "Bull" is more recent, first appearing in English around 1200 AD.
"Beef", as has been said, is from middle French and first appears in written English in c1300 AD.
Similarly, "sheep" is Old English while "mutton" entered middle English from Old French around 1300.
The same story applies to pig and pork; deer and venison. Although 'pig' originally only referred to the young animal under one year old; regular pigs were swine. "hogs" were also under one year old.
The probable reason for the two existing side by side is that after the Norman Conquest, the land owning, ruling, educated classes spoke French while the uneducated peasants spoke English. Under the feudal system, the peasants would raise the animals and so use their language to describe them. The upper classes ate the beef, mutton and venison, so used their language, French. By around 1300 AD the two languages had merged (as can be seen in Chaucer) into Middle English. Some English and French words were lost or relegated to dialect use, but in the case of this animal/meat referencing, both were retained.
Also, "meat" (also from Old English) originally just meant "food". The modern use to mean the flesh of animals is relatively recent (and 'meat' is still used in the old sense).
8 hours ago, heidih said:Ha! why are all the killed ones female - not inciting drama but tis interesting.
They aren't.
Never heard of "coq au vin"?
