Cattle: Encyclopedia II - Cattle - Terminology

Cattle - Terminology

The word "cattle" did not originate as a name for bovine animals. It derives from the Latin caput, head, and thus originally meant "unit of livestock" or "one head". The word is closely related to "chattel" (a unit of property) and to "capital" in the sense of "property."

Older English sources like King James Version of the Bible refer to livestock in general as cattle, or sometimes the archaic kine (which comes from the same English stem as cow). Additionally other species of the genus Bos are often called cattle or wild cattle. This article refers to the common modern meaning of "cattle", the European domestic bovine.

Young cattle are called calves. A young male is called a bull-calf; a young female before she has calved is called a heifer (pronounced "heffer"). Male cattle bred for meat are castrated unless needed for breeding. The castrated male is then called a bullock or steer, unless kept for draft purposes, in which case it is called an ox (plural oxen), not to be confused with the related wild musk ox. If castrated as an adult, it is called a stag. An intact male is called a bull. An adult female over two years of age (approximately) is called a cow. The adjective applying to cattle is bovine.

The term cattle itself is not a plural, but a mass noun. Thus one may refer to some cattle, but not three cattle. There is no singular equivalent in modern English to cattle other than the various gender and age-specific terms (though "catron" is occasionally seen as a half-serious proposal). Strictly speaking, the singular noun for the domestic bovine is ox: a bull is a male ox and a cow is a female ox. That this was once the standard name for domestic bovines is shown in placenames such as Oxford. But "ox" is no longer used in this general sense, being restricted to the sense given above. Today "cow" is probably the closest to being gender-neutral, although it is usually understood to mean female (females of other animals, such as whales or elephants, are also called cows). To refer to a specific number of these animals without specifying their gender, it must be stated as (for example) "ten head of cattle."

Some Australian, Canadian, New Zealand and Scottish farmers use the term "cattlebeast". Obsolete terms for cattle include "neat" (horned oxen, from which "neatsfoot oil" is derived), "beef" (young ox) and "beefing" (young animal fit for slaughtering). Cattle raised for human consumption are called beef cattle. Within the beef cattle industry in parts of the United States, the older term beef (plural beeves) is still used to refer to an animal of either gender. Cows of certain breeds that are kept for the milk they give are called dairy cows. The word "cow" can also be used derogatively, when describing a person, whom one expresses a dislike for. In some countries, such as the UK, this slur is used exclusively for women whereas in others it may be used for both genders. The word "heifer" is sometimes used in a similar fashion, the implication being that the target of the term is overweight.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Terminology", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki