Culture · 6 pages · 12 min
Why English has pairs like cow and beef
The living animal kept a Germanic name, and the meat often took a French one after the Norman Conquest.
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From the opening
English has pairs like cow and beef because the animal often kept a Germanic name while the meat, as a dish, took a name from Norman French. The pair records who was using which language after the conquest, not a rule about farming. The opening covers germanic names stayed with the animals, french names attached to the meat, and chicken and lamb do not split.
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Inside
- Germanic names stayed with the animals
- French names attached to the meat
- Chicken and lamb do not split
- Contact and prestige, not a dining law
- Where the idea stops applying
- A distinction worth keeping
Sources
- Norman French loans in the English food vocabulary
- Germanic animal names beside French meat names