• surewhynotlem@lemmy.world
      341·
      2 years ago

      Words mean how people use them. There is absolutely an animal called a cow, regardless of sex, and it’s a synonym for cattle.

      You are also correct that cow means female is many species.

    • waz@lemmy.world
      20·
      2 years ago

      Similarly, and also often misunderstood…

      Peacock only refers to the males. A female is called a peahen.

            • MrShankles@reddthat.com
              3·
              2 years ago

              First time I heard peafowl at night, I honestly thought a woman was being murdered in the distance or something. I was a kid and had to ask my parents what was going on. I almost didn’t believe them because I didn’t even know there were peafowl down the road at all. But that memory always stuck with me lol

        • gazter@aussie.zone
          4·
          2 years ago

          “Look at me, I’m so pretty!” “AHHHHH-RAAAAAAAAAH! AH-RAH! AHHHHH RAAAAAAAAAAA!”

          • PissinSelfNdriveway@sh.itjust.works
            2·
            2 years ago

            I live a 1/2 mile or so away and down a different road but they still sound like they are in my yard screaming… the first one they got immediately flew away, so then they had to make a giant outdoor cage with a roof to keep the next ones in… I’m not a genius but I believe if you have to build a outdoor prison compound to keep in your stupid screaming birds you should probably find a different hobby.

      • Feathercrown@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        2 years ago

        You say peacock and nobody bats an eye… but you say poopcock and everyone LOSES THEIR MINDS

        - The Joker

    • Lvxferre@lemmy.ml
      2·
      2 years ago

      Words don’t work this way. They more often than not have multiple, somewhat overlapping, meanings. For example, Wiktionary lists five meanings for the word, when it comes to quadrupeds:

      1. (strictly) An adult female of the species Bos taurus, especially one that has calved.
      2. (loosely or informal) Any member of the species Bos taurus regardless of sex or age, including bulls and calves.
      3. (uncommon) Beef: the meat of cattle as food.
      4. (uncommon) Any bovines or bovids generally, including yaks, buffalo, etc.
      5. (biology) A female member of other large species of mammal, including the bovines, moose, whales, seals, hippos, rhinos, manatees, and elephants.

      You’re likely referring to meaning #4 or #5, but keep in mind that #1 is the most common and #2 is likely the original one (due to the cognates).

        • Lvxferre@lemmy.ml
          1·
          2 years ago

          “Loosely or informal” solely means that it’s associated with an informal register, specially in contrast with #1. Any claim past is assumption.

          “Wrong” is relative. Which is the standard/reference that you’re using for contrast? Your own usage?

          And odds are that #2 is the original meaning. It isn’t like “people suddenly started to refer to Bos taurus regardless of sex”, it’s more like “people have been using it with this meaning for thousands of years”. #1 (the more common meaning) is likely the result of semantic narrowing, and #5 (the one that you’re defending as “correct”) is probably fairly recent. None of those meanings should be seen as “incorrect”, but picking on a meaning that backtracks all the way into Proto-Indo-European is extremely obtuse. (And no, the situation is nothing like the one for “literally”.)

        • Skyhighatrist@lemmy.ca
          7·
          2 years ago

          What you’ve said is technically correct (the best kind of correct). But the word cattle is also used to refer to other similar animals such as Yak, Bison, Buffalo.

          Merriam-Webster defines cattle as

          : domesticated quadrupeds held as property or raised for use
          specifically : bovine animals on a farm or ranch

          Cambridge defines it as:

          a group of animals that includes cows, buffalo, and bison, that are often kept for their milk or meat

          And Oxford as:

          cows and bulls that are kept as farm animals for their milk or meat

          Wikipedia is more specific and defines it as:

          Cattle or oxen (Bos taurus) are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus Bos.

          Not disputing your fact at all, just clarifying that words often have multiple meanings and meanings also change over time according to popular usage, so saying cattle means livestock isn’t necessarily wrong, it’s just not as precise as the technical definition. And the more people that use it that way the more correct it becomes. As I dove deeper into the topic, I’m seeing evidence that suggests that Cattle is also an American term that means Livestock, but is marked as archaic. Which honestly makes sense as the word’s etymology is the following according to Merriam-Webster:

          Middle English catel, cadel “property (whether real or personal), goods, treasure, livestock, (in plural cateles) possessions,” borrowed from Anglo-French katil “property, goods, wealth,” borrowed from medieval French (dialects of Picardy and French Flanders) catel, going back to Medieval Latin capitāle “movable property, riches,” (in Anglo-Saxon law texts) “head of cattle,” noun derivative from neuter of capitālis “of the head, chief, principal”

          Anyway, good fact nonetheless.

        • oNevia@lemm.ee
          4·
          2 years ago

          Definitely meant as in I had no idea either and you helped me learn something today ☺️