Not a specific word, but it’s fascinating to me how, because of the Norman invasion in 1066, fancier words are of French origin and lower-class words are Germanic. So the animal is a cow, but we eat beef (boeuf) and the animal is a pig, but we eat pork (porc). Chicken was something even the poor ate, so it didn’t change.
There are other funny things going on in animal names.
A “chicken” is a young “cock”, just as a “kitten” is a young “cat”.
And a “rabbit” was a young “coney” — which rhymes with “honey”.
But folks got prudish and they didn’t want to talk about cocks and coneys in front of the kids, so words like “chicken” and “rabbit” took over.
Meanwhile over at the pig farm, how does a farmer call a hog?
They holler “Soo-ee!”, right?
They’re speaking Latin. That’s “Sui!” — the vocative form of “sus”, Latin for pig. Folks have been talking to their pigs in Latin for a long, long time.
Not a specific word, but it’s fascinating to me how, because of the Norman invasion in 1066, fancier words are of French origin and lower-class words are Germanic. So the animal is a cow, but we eat beef (boeuf) and the animal is a pig, but we eat pork (porc). Chicken was something even the poor ate, so it didn’t change.
“Poultry” though
Good point, I forgot about that.
There are other funny things going on in animal names.
A “chicken” is a young “cock”, just as a “kitten” is a young “cat”.
And a “rabbit” was a young “coney” — which rhymes with “honey”.
But folks got prudish and they didn’t want to talk about cocks and coneys in front of the kids, so words like “chicken” and “rabbit” took over.
Meanwhile over at the pig farm, how does a farmer call a hog?
They holler “Soo-ee!”, right?
They’re speaking Latin. That’s “Sui!” — the vocative form of “sus”, Latin for pig. Folks have been talking to their pigs in Latin for a long, long time.
Everywhere I go, I see his face…
ඞ
holy shit would you look at that