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A bovine is any member of the taxonomic group that includes our European-American cattle: it is not specific to our cow, but includes zebu, water buffalo, brahmans, etc. It's analogous to canine, feline, ovine, murine, and many other such -ine constructions. These are all originally adjectives, but have made the leap to nounhood. If one is referring to a cow in the singular, one says either cow or bull or steer (the latter a castrated bull,) but "cow" is occasionally used as a generic term, too, perhaps when one is uncomfortable with inspecting the subject animal too closely. Steers, when being refered to in the plural, are occasionally called "beeves," though I've never heard the singular, "beef," used to refer to a steer without an accompanying word, e.g., "beef animal" (most commonly) or "beef cow."
I'm curious if you folks out there say BO-vine or BO-veen. I've heard the latter on occasion, mostly in academic surroundings.
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>"cow" is occasionally used as a generic term, too
see MWCD instance, above.
-joe (chopped cow liver) friday
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...but "cow" is occasionally used as a generic term, too... It certainly is, and I've heard it applied as such, but I'd test the waters before using it, because the usage is not uniformly accepted (in the U.S.) in my experience.
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People who are intimately involved with cattle probably generally call individuals by a term that covers the individual's sex and neutered status. Cow for a female, bull for an intact male and steer for a neutered male. Others are free to call them all cows.
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"Cattle" also can be used in another, generic sense. I've heard it used to mean any kind of livestock (except poultry.) I understand it comes from the same ancestor word as "chattel," and originally meant anything one owned. It then (as "cattle") came to mean livestock and only fairly recently has come to mean bovine livestock exclusively.
"Corn" has followed a similar path I'm told, having originally been a generic word meaning "seed," then recently assuming the exclusive meaning of Zea mays, and that only in American English. "Kernel," "acorn," and probably others (definitely some German words) are descended from the original "seed" meaning. "Colonel" is not.
Last edited by beck123; 03/19/10 12:02 AM.
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A bovine is any member of the taxonomic group that includes our European-American cattle: it is not specific to our cow, but includes zebu, water buffalo, brahmans, etc. It's analogous to canine, feline, ovine, murine, and many other such -ine constructions. These are all originally adjectives, but have made the leap to nounhood. If one is referring to a cow in the singular, one says either cow or bull or steer (the latter a castrated bull,) but "cow" is occasionally used as a generic term, too, perhaps when one is uncomfortable with inspecting the subject animal too closely. Steers, when being refered to in the plural, are occasionally called "beeves," though I've never heard the singular, "beef," used to refer to a steer without an accompanying word, e.g., "beef animal" (most commonly) or "beef cow."
I'm curious if you folks out there say BO-vine or BO-veen. I've heard the latter on occasion, mostly in academic surroundings. Before Nebraska became the Cornhusker State it used to say: "The Beef State" on license plates. It's "bovine" here.
Last edited by LukeJavan8; 03/19/10 02:40 AM.
----please, draw me a sheep----
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"Corn" has followed a similar path I'm told
Corn is still generic in the UK and many parts of the Commonwealth.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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But what is the animals name in its singlar tense? Not in Latin but in English. If the word Cow refers to the female then that cannot be it, there must be another word surely!?
Tense is a grammatical category of verbs.Cow is mostly used as a noun. What is the singular, generic form for cattle. Others have answered a, and it's cow. Not all words for animals in English are orthogonal with respect to sex, age, and fertility. There is a term epicene which in English is sort of a synonym for effete or hermaphroditic, but in Latin was a grammatical term for animal words which were the same form for both male and females of the species (and it still has this meaning in linguistics and lexicography).
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Whatever it happens to be, I know a bunch of kids in a
school bus would point and say: "Hey look at all the cows",
irrespective of gender or grammar. How language changes.
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I'm curious if you folks out there say BO-vine or BO-veen. I've heard the latter on occasion, mostly in academic surroundings. I pronounce BO-vine, like divine. From age 8 to 12 I spent the August months on a farm up north in the country. I knew the seventeen cows by there names. Daughters were sometimes called after their mothers. There was Dora I and Dora II. I was allowed to get up at five and join in getting them from the meadow to the milking house. I love cows for their velvety eyes and patient behaviour. I don't really like to eat them. I'm not surprised at all that in Hinduism the cow is considered sacred.
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