spring

en-verb

spring (third-person singular simple present springs, present participle springing, simple past sprang or sprung, past participle sprung)

springs (present singular third-person)
springing (participle present)
sprang (past)
sprung (past)
sprung (participle past)
spring (infinitive)

From Middle English springen, from Old English springan (“to spring, leap, bounce, sprout forth, emerge, spread out”), from Proto-West Germanic *springan, from Proto-Germanic *springaną (“to burst forth”), from Proto-Indo-European *spre(n)ǵʰ- (“to move, race, spring”), from *sper- (“to jerk, twitch, snap, shove”).
Cognates
* Saterland Frisian springe
* West Frisian springe
* Dutch springen
* German Low German springen
* German springen
* Danish springe
* Swedish springa
* Norwegian springe
* Faroese springa
* Icelandic springa (“to burst, explode”).
Other possible cognates include Lithuanian spreñgti (“to push (in)”), Old Church Slavonic прѧсти (pręsti, “to spin, to stretch”), Latin spargere (“to sprinkle, to scatter”), Ancient Greek σπέρχω (spérkhō, “to hasten”), Sanskrit स्पृहयति (spṛháyati, “to be eager”). Some newer senses derived from the noun.

cog

Deer spring with their hind legs, using their front hooves to steady themselves.

...into helle spring...

c. 1250, Life of St Margaret, Trin. Col. MS B.14.39 (323), f. 22v

Ye kynge... sprange out of his chare and resseyuyd them worshipfully.

1474, William Caxton, transl., Game and Playe of the Chesse, iii, vii, 141:

...the Mountain Stag, that springs
From Height to Height, and bounds along the Plains,
Nor has a Master to restrain his Course...

...out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.

1827, Clement Clarke Moore, (A Visit from St. Nicholas):

However, with the dainty volume my quondam friend sprang into fame. At the same time he cast off the chrysalis of a commonplace existence.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

Thus she advanced; her belly low, almost touching the surface of the ground—a great cat preparing to spring upon its prey.

1912, Edgar Rice Burroughs, chapter 5, in Tarzan of the Apes:

Reporters sprang to the conclusion that the speech would make detailed new commitments...

(figurative, usually with cardinal adverbs) To move with great speed and energy.

To move or burst forth.
To move with great speed and energy.


spring

en-noun

spring (countable and uncountable, plural springs)

Arlington Springs Man
Beijing Spring
Berber Spring
ColdSpring
Croatian Spring
Damascus Spring
Operation Spring Awakening
Operation Spring Cleanup
Operation Spring of Youth
Prague Spring
Spring Palace
Spring of Nations
Springbal
Springfest
The Spring Offensive
spring

From Middle English spryng (“a wellspring, tide, branch, sunrise, kind of dance or blow, ulcer, snare, flock”); partly from Old English spring (“wellspring, ulcer”), from Proto-West Germanic *spring, from Proto-Germanic *springaz (“a wellspring, fount”); and partly from Old English spryng (“a jump”), from Proto-West Germanic *sprungi, from Proto-Germanic *sprungiz (“a jump”). Further senses derived from the verb and from clippings of day-spring, springtime, spring tide, etc. Its sense as the season, first attested in a work predating 1325, gradually replaced Middle English lente, lentin, from Old English lencten (“spring, Lent”) as that word became more specifically liturgical. Compare fall.

ааԥын

season between winter and summer in temperate climates

Heav'ns what a spring was in his Arm, to throw:
How high he held his Shield, and rose at ev'ry blow!

1697, John Dryden, Virgil's Aeneis, Bk. xi, ll. 437–8

Mrs Durbeyfield, excited by her song, trod the rocker with all the spring that was left in her after a long day's seething in the suds.

1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, volume 1, London: James R. Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., page 30:

(uncountable) Springiness: an attribute or quality of springing, springing up, or springing back, particularly


cow

en-noun

cow (countable and uncountable, plural cows or cattle or (archaic or dialectal) kine)

cows (plural)
cattle (plural)
kine (archaic dialectal plural)

bull

antonym(s) of “female domesticated ox or other bovine”

Sranan Tongo: kaw

Tok Pisin: kau

q

from <i class="Latn mention" lang="en">cows</i>

→ Abenaki: kaoz (from cows)

→ Maori: kau

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *gʷṓws
Proto-Germanic *kōz
Proto-West Germanic *kō
Old English cū
Middle English cou
English cow
Inherited from Middle English cou, cu, from Old English cū (“cow”), from Proto-West Germanic *kō, from Proto-Germanic *kōz (“cow”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷṓws (“cow”).
Cognate with Sanskrit गौ (gow), Ancient Greek βοῦς (boûs), Persian گاو (gâv)), Latvian govs (“cow”), Proto-Slavic *govędo (Serbo-Croatian govedo, Russian говядина (govjadina, “beef”), Scots coo (“cow”), North Frisian ko, kø (“cow”), West Frisian ko (“cow”), Dutch koe (“cow”), Low German Koh, Koo, Kau (“cow”), German Kuh (“cow”), Swedish ko (“cow”), Norwegian ku (“cow”), Icelandic kýr (“cow”), Latin bōs (“ox, bull, cow”), Armenian կով (kov, “cow”). Doublet of beef.
The plural kine is from Middle English kyne, kyn, kuin, kiin, kien (“cows”), either a double plural of Middle English ky, kye (“cows”), equivalent to modern kye + -en, or inherited from Old English cȳna (“cows', of cows”), genitive plural of cū (“cow”).

etymon

the cow knows not the worth of its tail till it loses it

why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free

Colonel Red Reeder, West Point Second Classman
An assistant manager, wearing the stripes of a cadet corporal, walked up to Coach Smith. Clint knew him, a Cow from B-l. What had he done to become so outstanding that the Tacs made him a corporal?

When I was a cow (junior) at West Point, I dated a plebe (freshman), which is considered fraternization in the cadet realm.

2023, James E Parco, David A Levy, Daphne DePorres, Attitudes Aren't Free: A Call to Action, page 242:

(US, military, slang) A third-year cadet at West Point.


drove

From Middle English drove, drof, draf, from Old English drāf (“action of driving; a driving out, expulsion; drove, herd, band; company, band; road along which cattle are driven”), from Proto-Germanic *draibō (“a drive, push, movement, drove”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰreybʰ- (“to drive, push”). Cognate with Scots drave, dreef (“drove, crowd”), Dutch dreef (“a walkway, wide road with trees, drove”), Middle High German treip (“a drove”), Swedish drev (“a drive, drove”), Icelandic dreif (“a scattering, distribution”). More at drive.

cog

used in some regions of the US, particularly the Midwest

in droves

(figuratively, by extension, usually in the plural) A large number of people on the move.

A road or track along which cattle are habitually, used to be or coil be driven; a droveway.

karjapolku

road or track along which cattle are habitually driven — see also droveway


drove

en-verb

drove (third-person singular simple present droves, present participle droving, simple past and past participle droved)

droves (present singular third-person)
droving (participle present)
droved (participle past)
droved (past)

From earlier drave, from Middle English drave, draf, from Old English drāf, first and third person singular indicative preterite of drīfan (“to drive”).

He's droving now with Conroy's sheep along the Castlereagh.

1890, Banjo Paterson, The Man from Snowy River:

To herd cattle; particularly over a long distance.

transumare

to herd cattle, to move cattle over a long distance


bull

From Middle English bulle, from Old French bulle, from Latin bulla, from Gaulish. Doublet of bull (“bubble”) and bulla.

A papal bull, an official document or edict from the Pope.


why

From Middle English why, from Old English hwȳ (“why”), from Proto-Germanic *hwī (“by what, how”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷey, instrumental case of *kʷis (“who”), *kʷid (“what”).
Cognate with Old Saxon hwī (“why”), hwiu (“how; why”), Middle High German wiu (“how, why”), archaic Danish and Norwegian Bokmål hvi (“why”), Norwegian Nynorsk kvi (“why”), Swedish vi (“why”), Faroese and Icelandic hví (“why”), Latin quī (“why”), Doric Greek πεῖ (peî, “where”), Ukrainian чи (čy, “if”), Polish czy, Czech či (“or”), Serbo-Croatian či (“if”). Compare Old English þȳ (“because, since, on that account, therefore, then”, literally “by that, for that”). See thy.

cog

Why is the sky blue?

Why did you do that?

I don’t know why he did that

Tell me why the moon changes phase.

Why do you have a map of the world?
Audio (US): (file)

2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

(interrogative) For what cause, reason, or purpose.

For what cause, reason, or purpose.
Introducing a complete question.

Why don't you ask her out for dinner?

With a negative, used rhetorically to make a suggestion.

Why spend money on something you already get for free?

Why not tell him how you feel?

Introducing a verb phrase (bare infinitive clause).

Why him? Why not someone taller?

For what cause, reason, or purpose.
Introducing a noun or other phrase.


why

whys (plural)
why's (plural)
whies (plural)

A good article will cover the who, the what, the when, the where, the why and the how.

Within months of leaving, she became the new owner of Dream Body Recovery in Miami, which has three rooms that can accommodate up to six clients. “Being a part of this journey with other ladies, knowing how it changed my life, that’s my why,” she told me.

2022 May 11, Sandra E. Garcia, “Butt Lifts Are Booming. Healing Is No Joke.”, in The New York Times Magazine:


cattle

en-noun

cattle pl (normally plural, singular cattle)

From Middle English catel, from Anglo-Norman catel (“personal property”), from Old Northern French (compare French cheptel, Old French chetel, chatel, also English chattel) from Medieval Latin capitāle, from Latin capitālis (“of the head”) (whence also capital, from caput (“head”) + -alis (“-al”)). For the sense evolution, compare pecuniary and fee. Also compare Russian поголо́вье (pogolóvʹje, “total number of livestock”) from Russian голова́ (golová, “head”). Doublet of capital and chattel.

m+

Do you want to raise cattle?

Domesticated animals of the species Bos taurus (cows, bulls, steers, oxen etc).


calf

en-noun

calf (plural calves or (nonstandard) calfs)

calves (plural)
calfs (nonstandard plural)

From Middle English calf, from Anglian Old English cælf, calf (West Saxon ċealf); also cognate with German Kalb (“calf”), Dutch kalf (“calf”) and Danish kalv (“calf”), from Proto-Germanic *kalbaz, further etymology unknown.

New York, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Baltimore

Leather made of the skin of the calf; especially, a fine, light-coloured leather used in bookbinding.

A young deer, elephant, seal, whale or giraffe (also used of some other animals).

دَغْفَل

young deer, elephant, seal or whale (also used of some other animals)

kalv

of other animals, e.g., moose or antelope

1915 (published), 1848 (first written), Elisha Kent Kane, Adrift in the Arctic Ice Pack
Our swell ceases with this wind, and the floes seem disposed to come together again; but the days of winter have passed by, and the interposing calves prevent the apposition of the edges

A chunk of ice broken from a larger glacier, ice shelf, or iceberg.

kalv

chunk of ice broken off of a larger glacier, ice shelf, or iceberg


calf

From Middle English calf, kalf, from Old Norse kalfi, possibly derived from the same Germanic root as English calf (“young cow”) (above). Cognate with Icelandic kálfi (“calf of the leg”).

Sure, his calves are a little weak, but the rest of his physique is so overwhelming, he should place high.

1988, Steve Holman, “Christian Conquers Columbus”, in Ironman, 47 (6): 28-34:

The muscle in the back of the leg below the knee.


bullet

bullet (countable and uncountable, plural bullets)

From Middle English bullet (“an official tag or badge of registration or identification”), from Old French bullete, diminutive of boule (“ball”). Later influenced by Middle French boulette and French boulet.

inh

Nakamura is a different animal at 15-minute rapid and five-minute blitz and even more so at one-minute bullet, and in this match he adopted a psychological approach which paid off brilliantly.

2020 August 21, Leonard Barden, “Chess: Carlsen fights back from brink to overcome Nakamura in 38-game epic”, in The Guardian:

Carlsen also has been engaging in online marathons of "bullet chess," exactly the kind of attention-disrupting, energy-draining stunt contenders are supposed to avoid. In a bullet game, each player has only one minute for all the moves. The pace is so rapid the games are hard to watch, much less play.

2021 November 24, Tyler Cowen, “Chess Is an Esport Now. Get Used to It.”, in The Washington Post:

Even today, when they're home, the siblings indulge in a friendly game or two. "We love playing bullet games. It's a format where we make really quick moves," he says, pausing to add, "Think of it like a super over in cricket."

2022 July 27, Srinivasa Ramanujam, “'Feels like a festival': Praggnanandhaa on Chess Olympiad and meeting Rajinikanth”, in The Hindu:

(chess, uncountable) Short for bullet chess.


Guernsey

From Anglo-Norman, from Old Norse, compound of Grani (“Grani's”) and ey (“island”). Folk etymology points to a dialectal root for green.

An unincorporated community in California


ox

→ Abenaki: aksen (via "oxen")

→ Malecite-Passamaquoddy: akson (via "oxen")

→ Unami: aksën (via "oxen")

From Middle English oxe, from Old English oxa, from Proto-West Germanic *ohsō, from Proto-Germanic *uhsô (compare West Frisian okse, Dutch os, German Ochse), from Proto-Indo-European *uksḗn.
Cognate with Welsh ych (“ox”), Tocharian A ops, Tocharian B okso (“draft-ox”), Avestan 𐬎𐬑𐬱𐬀𐬥 (uxšan, “bull”), Sanskrit उक्षन् (ukṣán).

nandwie

any bovine animal used as a beast of burden

one hair of a woman can draw more than a hundred pair of oxen

An adult castrated male of cattle (B. taurus), especially when used as a beast of burden.

Here the same four kinds are mentioned ... These are sheep, goats, camels and oxen.

1934, commentary on the Qur'an (Sura 39 verse 6) by Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Any bovine animal (genus Bos). A neat, a beef.


bobby

Bro I’m booky, I’ll take your food if my belly starts rumblin
They rap about bootings, they ain’t blammed nobody
Hold that properly when I bang that dotty
I put sniff in a rex, and I slang that bobby

2017, “Next Up?”, Digga D (lyrics), performed by 1011 (Digga D x Sav'O x T.Y):


cattleman

A man who raises or tends cattle, as:
A cattle rancher.


steer

Inherited from Middle English steeren, steren, stiren, sturen, steoren, from Old English stēoran, stīeran, stȳran (“to steer; guide a vessel”), from Proto-West Germanic *stiurijan (“to steer”), from Proto-Germanic *stiurijaną (“to steer”).
The noun is from Middle English steere, stere (“rudder”), steor, from Old English stēor, stȳr (“steering; guidance; direction”). Compare Dutch stuur, German Steuer, Icelandic stýri.

I tried to give you the steer, but I guess I didn't get it over. Everybody knew it but you.

1939, Mark Hellinger, The Roaring Twenties:

(informal) A suggestion about a course of action.

намек

informal: suggestion about course of action


Devon

From Old English Defenas, which meant both "Devonians" and "Devon," exemplifying the common Anglo-Saxon practice of naming a place after the people who inhabit it.

Any of a number of places in US and Canada.

An unincorporated community in New Castle County, Delaware, United States.

New Castle County
New Castle County#English

An unincorporated community in Mingo County, West Virginia, United States.


kine

(television) Short for kinescope (“type of recording”).


dzo

Coordinate term: (female) dzomo

A male hybrid of a yak and a domesticated cow.


Kerry

* As an English surname, from a personal name derived from Old Norse Kári.
* As an Irish surname, from Ó Ciardha (“descendant of Ciardha”), from ciar (“black”).

A ticket of John Kerry and John Edwards with, effectively, four first names, would send the wrong message to the world. Also no candidate has ever been elected president, with a girl's name like "Kerry" for a "surname".

2004 The Bulletin, Australia, "Hustling Hustings", February 25, 2004

A surname from Middle English derived from the place name, or from the Middle English given name Kendrick.

Kerry O'Leary - for so was he called to distinguish him from those of the name in the adjoining county - soon made his appearance in the court-yard beneath.

1845, Charles James Lever, The O' Donoghue: A Tale of Ireland Fifty Years Ago, W. Curry, published 1845, page 26:

A male given name transferred from the surname or place name.

A female given name transferred from the surname or place name, originally of Australian usage, also spelled Keri, Kerri and Kerrie.


Kerry

An animal belonging to a rare breed of dairy cattle, native to Ireland.


bud

en-noun

bud (countable and uncountable, plural buds)

From Middle English budde (“bud, seed pod”), from Proto-Germanic *buddǭ (compare Dutch bot (“bud”), German Hagebutte (“hip, rosehip”), regional German Butzen (“seed pod”), Swedish dialect bodd (“head”)), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *bʰew-, *bu- (“to swell”).

Hey bro, want to smoke some bud?

(usually uncountable, slang) Potent cannabis taken from the flowering part of the plant (the "bud"), or marijuana generally.

(US, Canada, Australia, slang, uncountable) Marijuana.


calver

As the adjective predates the verb, possibly from Middle English calver (“interspersed with flakes”), from Old English calwer. Cognate with Scots caller.

inh

calver salmon


calver

en-verb

calver (third-person singular simple present calvers, present participle calvering, simple past and past participle calvered)

calvers (present singular third-person)
calvering (participle present)
calvered (participle past)
calvered (past)

[A Grayling's] flesh will so easily calver that […][it] is very good meat at all times.

1676, Izaak Walton, Charles Cotton, The Compleat Angler:

(obsolete, intransitive) To bear, or be susceptible of, being calvered.


lepper

(cattle) A type of Texas Longhorn, a subgroup of Butler cattle.


neat

en-adj

neat (comparative neater, superlative neatest)

neater (comparative)
neatest (superlative)

on the rocks

antonym(s) of “undiluted liquor or cocktail”

From Middle English nete, net, nette, from Anglo-Norman neit (“good, desirable, clean”), a variant of Old French net, nette (“clean, clear, pure”), from Latin nitidus (“gleaming”), derived from nitēre (“to shine”). Doublet of net and nitid. Cognate with German nett (“nice, kind”).

der

My room is neat because I tidied it this morning.  She has very neat hair.

Then his sallow face brightened, for the hall had been carefully furnished, and was very clean. ¶ There was a neat hat-and-umbrella stand, and the stranger's weary feet fell soft on a good, serviceable dark-red drugget, which matched in colour the flock-paper on the walls.

1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter II, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], →OCLC, page 0091:

A very neat old woman, still in her good outdoor coat and best beehive hat, was sitting at a polished mahogany table on whose surface there were several scored scratches so deep that a triangular piece of the veneer had come cleanly away,[…].

1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

Clean, tidy; free from dirt or impurities.


neat

artificial intelligence
artificial intelligence

(informal) An artificial intelligence researcher who believes that solutions should be elegant, clear and provably correct. Compare scruffy.


neat

From Middle English nete, neat, from Old English nēat (“animal, beast, ox, cow, cattle”), from Proto-West Germanic *naut, from Proto-Germanic *nautą (“foredeal, profit, property, livestock”), from Proto-Indo-European *newd- (“to acquire, make use of”). Cognate with Dutch noot (“cow, cattle”, in compounds), dialectal German Noß (“livestock”), Alemannic German Nooss (“young sheep or goat”), Swedish nöt (“cattle”), Icelandic naut (“cattle, bull”) and Faroese neyt (“cattle”). More at note.

cog

From thence into the open fields he fled, / Whereas the Heardes were keeping of their neat / And shepheards singing to their flockes, that fed,

1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 467:

And yet the steer, the heifer, and the calf / Are all call’d neat.

c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:

There on a Hillock thou mayſt ſing / Unto a handſome Shepardling; / Or to a Girle (that keeps the Neat) / VVith breath more ſvveet then Violet.

1648, Robert Herrick, “To his Muse”, in Hesperides: Or, The Works both Humane & Divine […], London: […] John Williams, and Francis Eglesfield, and are to be sold by Tho[mas] Hunt, […], →OCLC, page 2:


stag

en-noun

stag (countable and uncountable, plural stags)

From Middle English stagge, steg, from Old English stagga, stacga (“a stag”) and Old Norse steggi, steggr (“a male animal”), both from Proto-Germanic *staggijô, *staggijaz (“male, male deer, porcupine”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *stegʰ-, *stengʰ- (“to sting; rod, blade; sharp, stiff”). Cognate with Icelandic steggi, steggur (“tomcat, male fox”). Related to staggard, staggon.

The stag will be held in the hotel's ballroom.

(countable) A social event for men held in honor of a groom on the eve of his wedding, attended by male friends of the groom; sometimes a fundraiser.


veal

veal (countable and uncountable, plural veals)

From Middle English veel, from Anglo-Norman veel, from Latin vitellus, diminutive of vitulus (“calf”). Doublet of vitellus.

The flesh of a calf (i.e. a young bovine) used for food.


zobo

From Tibetan མཛོ་པོ (mdzo po, “male bull–yak hybrid”); see zebu for more.

der

A kind of Asian cattle, supposed to be a hybrid between the zebu and yak.


strapper

From strap + -er, principally strap + -er (agent noun suffix). The sense referring to a poorly producing milk cow (from strap + -er) came from a dialectal sense of the verb strap as a troponym of milk: not even the most skilful milking action could coax enough milk from the udder.

(electronics) A wire that joins two light switches so that a light can be turned off or on from either switch.


heifer

Inherited from Middle English heyfre, hayfre, heyfer, from Old English hēahfore, hēahfru, of disputed origin; see the Old English entry for more discussion.

And the Lord ſpake vnto Moſes and vnto Aaron, ſaying, This is the ordinance of the Law, which the Lord hath commaunded, ſaying, Speak vnto the childꝛen of Iſrael, that they bꝛing thee a red heifer without ſpot, wherein is no blemiſh, and vpon which neuer came yoke.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Numbers 19:1–2:

We muſt be neat; not neat, but cleanly, Captaine: / And yet the Steere, the Heycfer^([sic]), and the Calfe, / Are all call'd Neat.

c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 278:

The breath of the mountain heifer was fragrant as the gales of Sirendiep, by feeding on ſpicy herbs.

1769, Firishta, translated by Alexander Dow, Tales translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi, volume I, Dublin: P. and W. Wilson et al., page iv:

A young female cow, (particularly) one over one year old but which has not calved.


bovine

en-adj

bovine (comparative more bovine, superlative most bovine)

more bovine (comparative)
most bovine (superlative)

Borrowed from Late Latin bovīnus (“relating to cattle”), from Latin bōs (“ox”). Cognate to beef.

bor

bovine progressive degenerative myeloencephalopathy

They had been selected and arranged with a dull, bovine indifference to any meaning that any of them might have.

1988, Douglas Adams, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, William Heinemann Ltd, page 48:

For reasons which are really a matter for a trainee psychoanalyst, who plays James Bond is a big thing for Spencer. To this end, he has unleashed a series of thoughts so bovine that I’ll just give you one for a little flavour.

2018 August 16, Marina Hyde, “Sorry to break it to you, far-righters: James Bond is not on your team”, in The Guardian:


bangtail

From bang + tail. The primary meaning refers to the sense bang (“fringe of hair cut across the forehead”).

1851, Turning Out a Bagman: A Legend of Brighton Downs, in Charles Dickens, William Harrison Ainsworth, Albert Smith Bentley's Miscellany, Volume XXIX, page 259,
Two lean, ewe-necked, clipt chestnuts, tucked up in the ribs, with hard work and bad feeding, but with such flowing bang-tails as at once stamped them in the eyes of our friends as “ out-and-out ” thorough-breds—were led up and down by John. […] The bang-tails, no doubt, supposing themselves out for their usual “airing,” put themselves in the regular side-long position, and struck at once into a sort of hectic canter ; a particular movement, peculiar to Brighton bang-tails, and adapted to the most innocent equestrian.

1903, Tom Collins (Joseph Furphy), Such Is Life: Being Certain Extracts from the Diary of Tom Collins, 2004, page 68,
"And did you see a dark chestnut horse; bang tail; star and snip; white hind feet; saddle and bridle on?" I asked.

Lennan held the black horse — a bizarre little beast, all fire and whipcord, with a skin like satin, liquid eyes, very straight hocks, and a thin bangtail reaching down to them.

1913, John Galsworthy, The Dark Flower, page 244:

Once we get the herd we can set up relays to keep the bangtails movin' as we go.

2005, Cynthia Queen, The Major's Renegade, page 127:

The tail of a horse or cow, allowed to grow out and then trimmed horizontally so as to form a tassel; a horse or cow having such a tail.

“Eddie!” whinnied Daley, the distraught worshipper of the bang-tails. “Eddie! Phar Lap is dead!”

1934, Stanley Walker, City Editor, published 1999, page 99:

Americans bet $5,000,000,000 a year on the galloping bangtails.

1937, The American Magazine, volume 124, page 52:

If you happen to be out on the far east side between April 23 and September 5, with $10 burning a hole in your pocket, hie yourself out to River Downs Race Track, 6301 Kellogg Avenue, and bet on the bangtails.

1983 March, Cincinnati Magazine, page 43:

I was ridin' the horses then, you understand, and maybe known to take a flutter or two on the bangtails while I was about it.


bangtail

en-verb

bangtail (third-person singular simple present bangtails, present participle bangtailing, simple past and past participle bangtailed)

bangtails (present singular third-person)
bangtailing (participle present)
bangtailed (participle past)
bangtailed (past)

To shear off the hair horizontally at the end of a cow or horse's tail.


crummy

en-adj

crummy (comparative crummier, superlative crummiest)

crummier (comparative)
crummiest (superlative)


cowpat

Unfortunately, every cowpat that is burned as cooking fuel means that no nitrogen is available for use as fertilizer.

1979, Jack M. Hollander, Melvin K. Simmons, David O. Wood, Annual Review of Energy, →ISBN:


Afrikaner

/ˌæfɹɪˈkɑːnɚ/

Audio (US)

A member of an ethnic group of northwestern European ancestry and associated with southern Africa and the Afrikaans language.


Jersey

From Middle English Gersey, from Anglo-Norman Gersui, further etymology disputed. Probably from Old Norse [Term?], compound of Geirs (“Geirr's”) + ey (“island”). Also occasionally and historically connected to Latin Caesarea, a common name given to locations conquered by the Romans in honor of Caesar (compare French Césarée). The latter theory still bestows the Latin translation of the island.

unk

disputed


beefalo

en-noun

beefalo (plural beefalo or beefalos or beefaloes)

beefalo (plural)
beefalos (plural)
beefaloes (plural)

A cross between a domestic cow and an American buffalo or bison.


stripper

(automotive, informal) A base or entry-level trim level of a car model, lacking amenities or features found in higher trim levels.

(manufacturing) Short for stripper plate.


rustle

rustle The rustle of paper (canonical)
rustles (plural)

From Middle English rustelen, russelen, of uncertain origin, but probably from Old English hrūxlian, hristlan, hrystlan, hristlian (“to make a noise”). Compare also Scots reesle (“to crackle; rattle; rustle”), West Frisian risselje, Dutch ritselen (“to rustle”), Afrikaans ritsel (“to rustle”), German rascheln (“to rustle”).

cog

He heard the silken rustle of a dressing-gown being drawn on.

1994, Stephen Fry, chapter 2, in The Hippopotamus:

A soft crackling sound similar to the movement of dry leaves.


rustle

en-verb

rustle (third-person singular simple present rustles, present participle rustling, simple past and past participle rustled)

rustles (present singular third-person)
rustling (participle present)
rustled (participle past)
rustled (past)

When at last the lumber was piled again in its rightful place, and the boxes of food had been returned to the shelter from which they had been stolen, the two friends rustled a meal, and then set off on horseback […]

1921, William M. McCoy, The Valley of the Sun, page 48:

(transitive) To make or obtain in a lively, energetic way.

(transitive) To steal (cattle or other livestock).


Angus

Anglicized form of Scottish Gaelic Aonghas, perhaps literally "one choice".

Angus was a great enlargement of experience for me, because he illustrated how haphazardly Fate attributes names to her unoffending children. Angus McGubbin: a Scots giant, red-haired and scowling - wouldn't you think so?

1994, RobertsonDavies, The Cunning Man, Viking, published 1995, →ISBN, page 168:

A male given name from Scottish Gaelic of mostly Scottish usage.

A former county of Scotland, which became a local government district in 1975 in Tayside Region (abolished 1996)

A council area of Scotland, one of 32 created in 1996.

(rail transport) A nickname for the 0-8-8-0 train configuration.


longhorn

A breed of beef cattle, having long horns, bred in Texas and other parts of southwest United States.


Brahman

Borrowed from Sanskrit ब्रह्मन् (bráhman).

The coins of this dynasty are all marked with the figures of the Brahman Bull and a horseman; and it is remarkable that this very Hindú device was retained by the Mohammedan sovereigns who reigned over the same countries.

1846 June 20, “Asiatic Society.—June 6.—The Earl of Aukland in the chair.”, in The Athenæum, number 973, page 632:

A breed of beef cattle from India with a hump on the shoulder.


Brahman

(Hinduism) The unchanging, infinite, immanent, and transcendent reality which is the Divine Ground of all matter, energy, time, space, being, and everything beyond in this Universe. The nature of Brahman is described as transpersonal, personal and impersonal by different philosophical schools.


Nguni

From Zulu noun stem as in umNguni (“member of Nguni people”), isiNguni (“Nguni language group”).

The group of Southern African peoples comprising the Zulu, Xhosa, Swazi, Mpondo and Ndebele nations.


Aberdeen Angus

en-noun

Aberdeen Angus (plural Aberdeen Anguses)

/ˌæb.ɚˈdin ˈæŋ.ɡəs/

From Aberdeen and Angus, the counties in Scotland where the breed originated.

The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles

Oxford University Press
w:Oxford University Press

One of a breed of black hornless beef cattle originating in Scotland.


stirk

From Middle English stirk, sterke, styrke, from Old English stīrc, stȳrc, stȳric, stīorc (“calf, a stirk, a young bullock or a heifer”), from Proto-West Germanic *stiurik, from Proto-Germanic *stiurikaz (“bullock”), diminutive of Proto-Germanic *steuraz (“steer”), equivalent to steer + -ock. Cognate with Middle Low German sterke (“stirk”), Middle Dutch stierick ("stirk"; compare Modern Dutch sterke (“young cow”)), German Sterk, Stärke, Stark (“stirk”). More at steer.

gloss

"stirk"; compare Modern Dutch <i class="Latn mention" lang="nl">sterke</i> (“young cow”)

But beware of MacPhadraick, my son; for when he called himself the friend of your father, he better loved the most worthless stirk in his herd, than he did the life-blood of MacTavish Mhor.

1827, [Walter Scott], chapter XI, in Chronicles of the Canongate; […], volume I (The Highland Widow), Edinburgh: […] [Ballantyne and Co.] for Cadell and Co.; London: Simpkin and Marshall, →OCLC, page 197:

Comprising eleven calved and in-calf cows and heifers, three barren cows, four fat cows and heifers, two sturks and three yearlings; fifteen in-lamb ewes and theaves, […]

1843 March 3, “To Be Sold by Auction, By B. Cheatle & Son”, in Leicester Journal, and Midland Counties General Advertiser, volume 92, number 4895, Leicester: James Jackson, page 2:

he could stop a running stirk by the horns, so strong he was in the wrist-bones.

1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 20:

(British, Scotland, dialectal, dated) A yearling cow; a young bullock or heifer.


deacon

Inherited from Old English diacon, from Ecclesiastical Latin diāconus, from Ancient Greek διᾱ́κονος (diā́konos, “servant, minister”).

der

(Protestantism) Anglicanism: An ordained clergyperson usually serving a year prior to being ordained presbyter, though in some cases they remain a permanent deacon.

(US, animal husbandry) A male calf of a dairy breed, so called because they are usually deaconed (see below).

(Scotland) The chairman of an incorporated company.


deacon

en-verb

deacon (third-person singular simple present deacons, present participle deaconing, simple past and past participle deaconed)

deacons (present singular third-person)
deaconing (participle present)
deaconed (participle past)
deaconed (past)

(Christianity, music) For a choir leader to lead a hymn by speaking one or two lines at a time, which are then sung by the choir.


mickey

* (potato): From the common Irish name; compare murphy (“a potato”).
* (computer mouse resolution): An allusion to the cartoon character Mickey Mouse.

(Australia, informal) A well-known honeyeater, the Noisy Miner, Manorina melanocephala, of eastern Australia.


bossy

Diminutive of dialectal English boss, as used in the term boss-calf (which, like buss-calf, is a variant form of boose-calf, a calf kept in a boose (“stall”)).

A week before, while riding the prairies, Raidler had come upon a sick and weakling calf deserted and bawling. Without dismounting he had reached and slung the distressed bossy across his saddle, and dropped it at the ranch for the boys to attend to.

1903 February, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “Hygeia at the Solito”, in Everybody’s Magazine, volume VIII, number 2, New York, N.Y.: John Wanamaker, →ISSN, page 174, column 1:


bullock

bullock (third-person singular simple present bullocks, present participle bullocking, simple past and past participle bullocked)

bullocks (present singular third-person)
bullocking (participle present)
bullocked (participle past)
bullocked (past)

From Middle English bullok, from Old English bulluc, from Proto-West Germanic *bulluk, corresponding to bull + -ock (diminutive suffix). Compare Old Dutch bullok (“bullock”).

Yes, you villain, you have defiled my own bed, you have; and then you have charged me with bullocking you into owning the truth.

1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society, published 1973, page 47:

So you never knew when you were gonna fall foul of a furious bullocking. So it became a case of bullocking management, basically. You know, how can I stave off the stress and the bullying for another few days.

2017, podcast "Untold - The Daniel Morgan Murder", episode "Master of the Dark Arts", from minute 11:18


Friesian

[...] the more expensive and creamier Jersey or South Devon milk, for example, is kept apart from Friesian milk, with its low butter content.

1959 March, R. C. Riley, “Home with the Milk”, in Trains Illustrated, page 155:

A breed of black and white dairy cattle; any indiviual cow of that breed.


Limousin

Borrowed from French Limousin, from Latin Lemovicinus, adjective form of Lemovices, name of a Gaulish tribe in central France, most likely a reference to their elm bows and spears, of same ultimate origin as elm.

A former region in France; since 2016, part of the region of New Aquitaine.


rustler

(US, especially Western US, slang, dated) An alert, energetic, driving person.


heiferette

A female bovine, usually more than six months of age and less than two years of age, that has had no more than one calf.


Hereford

en-proper noun

Hereford (countable and uncountable, plural Herefords)

From Middle English Hereford, from Old English Hereford, from Old English here (“army”) + ford (“ford”). Compare Herford, North Rhine-Westphalia.

A number of places in the United States:

A locality in Cochise County, Arizona, named after Frank Hereford.

An unincorporated community in Weld County, Colorado.

Baltimore County
Baltimore County#English

An unincorporated community in Baltimore County, Maryland.

An unincorporated community in Callaway County, Missouri.

Deaf Smith County
Deaf Smith County#English

A city, the county seat of Deaf Smith County, Texas, United States, named for Hereford cattle raised there.


Black Angus

Any of a breed of black, hornless cattle from Scotland.


scalawag

Of obscure origin, perhaps from the name of the Shetland village of Scalloway (from Old Norse Skálavágr), known for its dwarf ponies and dwarf cattle.

(derogatory) A disreputable fellow, a good-for-nothing, a scapegrace, a blackguard.

“This ruckus never seems to end.” (Colin laughing) “He's very loud, and unlike us, he does not sleep during the day.” “Nor does he sleep during the night.” “When does he sleep?” “I don't think he does.” (glass breaks) “Never a dull moment with that scalawag.” “I'm pretty sure he must be part demon.” “Nonsense. He's all boy.”

2022 August 9, Ayo Edebiri & Shana Gohd, “Private School” (0:54 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows, season 4, episode 5, spoken by Laszlo Cravensworth (Matt Berry):

(informal) A badly behaved person, especially a child; a mischief-maker; a rascal.

“And you, Hugh Elsing, I’m ashamed of you! What will your poor mother say? Drunk and out with a—a Yankee-loving Scallawag like Captain Butler![…]”

1936 June 30, Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC; republished New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, 1944, →OCLC, part IV, page 803:

(derogatory, US, archaic or historical) Any white Southerner who supported the federal plan of Reconstruction after the American Civil War or who joined with the black freedmen and the carpetbaggers in support of Republican Party policies.

(Philippines, law enforcement, military) rogue police; rogue military personnel


stot

Likely derived from Middle Dutch stoten (“to push”) or Middle Low German stôten, from Old Saxon stōtan, from Proto-West Germanic *stautan, from Proto-Germanic *stautaną (“to push, jolt, bump”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewd-, from *(s)tew- (“to push, hit”).
Also compare Middle English steten (“to thrust, strike, push, knock down”), Old Norse stauta and steyta (whence Danish støde), Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌿𐍄𐌰𐌽 (stautan), Old Saxon stotan.

cog

Instead of dropping the golden cones safely into his bag he let them dribble out of his hands so that, in the expectancy before the violence of the storm, the tiny stots from one transfigured branch to another could be clearly heard.

1955, Robin Jenkins, The Cone-Gatherers, Canongate, published 2012, page 148:

(Scotland, Northern England) A bounce or rebound.

(zoology, of quadrupeds) A leap using all four legs at once.


stot

en-verb

stot (third-person singular simple present stots, present participle stotting or stottin, simple past and past participle stotted)

stots (present singular third-person)
stotting (participle present)
stottin (participle present)
stotted (participle past)
stotted (past)

‘I've plenty of money in my bank – and I have my cheque book here – could one of you cash a cheque for five pounds? – I promise it won't stot.’

1996, Alasdair Gray, “Lack of Money”, in Every Short Story 1951-2012, Canongate, published 2012, page 285:

(intransitive, Scotland and Northern England) To bounce, rebound or ricochet.

(transitive, Scotland and Northern England) To make bounce, rebound or ricochet.

(transitive, Scotland and Northern England) To stumble.

This vigorous and conspicuous leaping in front of a predator is analogous to bird alarm calls, in that it seems to warn companions of danger while apparently calling the predator’s attention to the stotter himself. We have a responsibility to explain stotting Tommies and all similar phenomena, and this is something I am going to face in later chapters.

1976, Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, Kindle edition, OUP Oxford, published 2016, page 14:

(intransitive, zoology, of quadrupeds) To leap using all four legs at once.


milch cow

From Middle English melche cow, mylche cowe.

A cow that produces milk (having had at least one calf).

(military, slang) A German WWII submarine designed to carry large cargoes of supplies and transfer them to other submarines.


shorthorn

One of a breed of cattle, originating in England, with distinctively short horns (in contrast to longhorn cattle).


cowhand

From cow + hand, or perhaps blend of cowboy + farmhand.

Though a first rate cow hand he very shortly proved himself to be wholly incapable of acting as head.

1886 April, Theodore Roosevelt, “Ranch Life and Game Shooting in the West”, in Outing, volume 8, number 1, page 3:

I'm an old cowhand from the Rio Grande / but my legs ain't bowed and my cheeks ain't tan […]

1936, “I'm an Old Cowhand (from the Rio Grande)”, Mercer, Johnny (music):

One who tends free-range cattle, especially in the American West.


cowling

She nuzzled between the legs—a bull calf. She continued to nuzzle and clean the little pea-green body that was blue with white patches about his cowling parts.

2003, David Gilet, The Yellow Dot Plague and Other Tales:


sook

Unknown origin. From Chesapeake Bay, attested as early as 1948.

The life cycle of the crab in the bay causes a preponderance of adult males (jimmy crabs) to occur in the waters of the upper bay while conversely a concentration of adult females (sook crabs) occurs in the more saline waters near the mouth of the bay (table 2).

1948, John Cleary Pearson, Fluctuations in the Abundance of the Blue Crab in Chesapeake Bay, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, page 4:

(US, eastern shore of Maryland) A mature female Chesapeake Bay blue crab (Callinectes sapidus).


hawkie

(Geordie) A cow with a white face and darker body.


seg

Probably from the root of Latin secāre (“to cut”).

(UK, Scotland, dialect, obsolete) A castrated farm animal.


dogie

Unknown.
Possibly an abbreviation of dough-guts, the pot bellied appearance of a malnourished calf. Possibly the transliteration of the slang word dobie/dobe/doby, pejoratively meaning inferior. Since dogie and dobie in reference to an orphaned calf both appeared in print around the same time (1880-1888), it is possible that dogie is the original and dobie is the transliteration.

When she was a child, her father often gave her orphaned calves to look after, and every so often, she would fold the grown ones in with the steers when they were shipped off to Fort Worth. She made enough money off her dogies to make investments in stocks […]

2013, Philipp Meyer, The Son, Simon & Schuster, published 2014, page 49:

(colloquial) A motherless calf in a range herd of cattle; a calf separated from its cow.


Afrikander

Alternative form of Afrikaner (“breed of cattle”)


freemartin

unk

Etymology unknown.

"Has your cat been spayed?" "I didn't need to: she's a freemartin."

Any female animal born sterile or otherwise infertile.


weaner

"I mean she's too young to get married," said Oscar. "Doesn't know she's alive yet—like calfing a weaner."

1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter IX, in Capricornia, page 138:

An animal that has been recently weaned.


quey

Of Scandinavian origin, ultimately from Old Norse kvíga.

So I sent away the two queys, one of them is pranded and the other plack.^([eye dialect, meaning: branded... black])

1875, William Robertson, Sketches of Highland Character: Sheep-farmers and Drovers, Edmonston and Douglas, page 13:

The blue ribbon in the section for two-year-old queys in calf was carried away by a sweet little animal owned by Mr. Frame, Blantyre Park, which had never been shown at any other exhibition.

1878, The Farmer's Magazine, Volume 53: January-June 1878, page 461:

Ewan, who with others was giving friendly help to the manager and herds, was in charge of the queys, which were disposed of and driven out while Mary was still taking instructions from the executor at the auctioneer's stand.

1890, The Highland Monthly, Volume 1, page 584:


Galloway

From Scottish Gaelic (eadar na) Gall-Ghàidhealaibh (literally “(among the) foreign Gaels”), a term used for Gaelic-speaking Norse settlers.

bor

A number of places in the United States:

An unincorporated community in Lakefield Township, Saginaw County and Lafayette Township, Gratiot County, Michigan.

A township in Atlantic County, New Jersey.

An unincorporated community in the town of Franzen, Marathon County, Wisconsin.

Yellowhead County
Yellowhead County#English

A locality in Yellowhead County, Alberta, Canada.


calving jack

A device used to assist the birth of a calf when it needs to be helped out of the womb by applying traction.


wagyu

en-noun

wagyu (countable and uncountable, plural wagyus or wagyu)

From Japanese 和(わ)牛(ぎゅう) (wagyū), from Middle Chinese 和 (MC hwa, “a gloss for 倭 (MC 'wa, “Japan”)”) + 牛 (MC ngjuw, “cow”).

ltc-l

Slices of wagyu beef come with spheres of root vegetables and mini-towers of polenta.

2009 January 19, Corey Mintz, “Susur and the City”, in Toronto Star:

(countable) Any of several Japanese breeds of cattle genetically predisposed to intense marbling and to producing a high percentage of oleaginous unsaturated fat.


whiteface

en-noun

whiteface (countable and uncountable, plural whitefaces)

(countable) Any bird of the genus Aphelocephala.


cattelo

cattelo (usually uncountable, plural cattelo or catteloes)

“They purposely crossed bison with domestic cattle to make a better beef animal,” which they called cattelo, said James Derr, a geneticist at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine.

2007 January 9, Jim Robbins, “Strands of Undesirable DNA Roam With Buffalo”, in New York Times:

A cross between domestic cattle and buffalo.


Sahiwal

Any of a breed of short-horned dairy cattle originating from the Sahiwal district.


fed cattle

Even though the empirical analysis used here cannot formally test which of several possible factors is the cause of any asymmetry, it is important to establish theoretical reasons to expect spatial price adjustments for fed cattle to be asymmetric.

1989 December, DeeVon Bailey, B. Wade Brorsen, “Price Asymmetry in Spatial Fed Cattle Markets”, in Western Journal of Agricultrual Economics, volume 8, number 2, page 246:

(agriculture) Cattle leaving a feedlot, after fattening on a concentrated ration, that are ready to be sold to a packinghouse for slaughter.


feeder cattle

(agriculture) Steers or cows that are mature enough to be placed in a feedlot in preparation for slaughter.


bum calf

At the start of calving season, there was another bum calf, Ferdinand, whose mother had abandoned him.

2005, Lynn Parr, Cowgirl: A Home on the Wyoming Range, page 149:

I could do it all — I could play their game until I dropped — but I would never own a square foot of land, a bushel of oats or a bum calf in my own name.

2002, Judy Blunt, Breaking Clean, page 291:

She usually manages to be busy feeding some bum calf or wrangling the horses or something.

1992, Teresa Jordan, Cowgirls: Women of the American West, page 83:

"I feel like a bum calf when you do this to me," Madeleine said and when her mother said, "What?" Madeleine said, "Never mind."

1989, Gretel Ehrlich, Heart Mountain, page 114:

A young heifer or bull which has been orphaned or abandoned; it must be adopted by another cow, steal milk, or be bottle-fed in order to survive, and is therefore often a runt.


leppy

When those big bands take off, the mares never come back for those leppies. We were branding one time and saw a little bunch move out and a mom left a leppy behind.

2006, Paula Morin, Honest Horses: Wild Horses in the Great Basin, page 105:

Out on the range, he would have been a stunted leppy.

2003, American Cowboy, volume 10, number 4, page 90:

I have heard a famous rodeo announcer crack the same old joke every year, "A leppy is a little calf whose ma has died, and whose pa has run away with another cow."

1978, Sarah E. Olds, Twenty Miles From a Match: Homesteading in Western Nevada, page 44:

(slang, US) A young animal, particularly a cow calf or bull calf, a lamb, or a colt, which has been abandoned or orphaned.


tauros

Bos primigenius
Bos primigenius#Translingual

A crossbred cattle that is bred to bring back features of the aurochs (“Bos primigenius”), a member of the Tauros cattle breed.


cattle beast

cattle beast (plural cattle beasts or cattle)

1883, Ontario Agricultural College and Experimental Farm, Guelph, Annual Report, Volume 8, 199,
To aim at breeding, raising, and fattening one cattle beast from every ten cultivated acres of the Province.

1970, New Zealand Department of Agriculture, New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 121, page xxvii,
Similarly, people describe their ideal cattle beast with terms such as depth of body, depth of twist, blocky, […] .

2005, New Zealand Society of Animal Production, Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production, Volume 65, 80,
The system is dependent on producers, abattoirs, meat wholesalers and meat retailers recording and managing information on each cattle beast using a ten-digit individual identification number.

An individual domesticated bovine animal; a singular form of the generalised plural cattle.


orf

From Middle English orf, from Old English orf (“cattle, livestock”), from Proto-West Germanic *arbī.
Akin to Old English ierfe (“inheritance, livestock, cattle”). More at erf.


gentleman cow

One day he attempted to help out by leading a gentleman cow back to the ranch, a distance of about a mile.

1914, “Catering industry employee”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), volume 23, page 44:


Holstein

From the animals' region of origin: the horses came from Schleswig-Holstein, the cows came from the area of Frisia and Holstein.

etymid

livestock breeds originated in Schleswig-Holstein

At the height of things, Bride Lake Farms had milked a herd of sixty-five registered Holsteins. Every other day, the Hood Dairy truck would pull up, pump nine thousand pounds of raw milk out of the tank, and drive it off for processing.

2008, Wally Lamb, The Hour I First Believed, Ch.5, at p.117

A breed of dairy cattle, distinctively colored in splotches of black and white.


kyloe

From Scottish Gaelic gaidhealach (“Gaelic, Highland”); see Gàidheal.

der

One of a breed of small Highland cattle.


oxshoe

(historical) A shoe for oxen, consisting of a flat piece of iron that is nailed to the hoof.


beeve

Back-formation from beeves, plural of beef.

They would knock down the first beeve they met with.

1855–1859, Washington Irving, The Life of George Washington:


mulley

Streamlined for action thin, flat and long, it mouth armed with two broad lines of sharp teeth – the mulley is all that it is said to be, a "fresh water shark", an eater of offal and a killer of fish.

1956, The March of India - Volume 8, page 15:

A closer look revealed a more silvery colouration and proper teeth, identifying it as a mulley (Wallagu attu). It weighed around twenty pounds, and to prove it was no fluke, I caught three smaller.

I was overwhelmed with mixed feelings of triumph and sorrow I must admit, as I watched the Mulley come swimming along reluctantly, a beautiful, sleek supple black-seeming fish.

2013, Simren Kaur, Fin Feather and Field, page 134:

A giant Asian catfish, Wallagonia Attu found in India, Sri Lanka, Burma, Indochina, Thailand, Java, and Sumatra.


moo-cow

Compare German Muhkuh and Italian mucca.

At the end of the line nearest the Arch, under a flary light, stood an old bearded man having the look on his face of a kindly but somewhat irritated moo-cow.

Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that was coming down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo[…]

1916 December 29, James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, New York, N.Y.: B[enjamin] W. Huebsch, →OCLC:


yukhoe

All of them – especially my father-in-law – enjoyed yuk hwe, a kind of beef tartar.

2015, Han Kang, translated by Deborah Smith, The Vegetarian, Granta, published 2018, page 18:

One of a variety of hoe (raw dishes in Korean cuisine), which are usually made from raw ground beef seasoned with various spices or sauces.


dairy cattle

Cattle of breeds developed primarily to provide milk; most of their male calves are used for the production of veal.


black cattle

(UK, dated) Any bovine cattle reared for its meat, as opposed to dairy cattle.


Simmental

An alpine valley in the Bernese Oberland of Switzerland.


springing cow

A cow or heifer which is close to calving.


mombie

A mombie is a woman who "changes" after having a baby. She's been brainwashed by motherhood, […]. She loves nothing more than joining an army of other mombies, so don't be surprised if your old friend-turned-mombie begins to spend her time primarily with other mombies who are all covered in some kind of murky baby secretion.

2013, Blair Koenig, STFU, Parents, →ISBN:

The woman who used to start the day with a Spin class with Suzanne turned into a mombie—a mom zombie who was a shadow of her former self. Showering was no longer important. Why bother?

2016, Suzanne Riss, Jill Sockwell, The Optimist's Guide to Divorce: How to Get Through Your Breakup:

(slang, sometimes derogatory) A mother who is consumed by raising her children to the point of being sleep-deprived or simply obsessed, and hence zombie-like.


Teeswater

From Tees + water, after the river in northern England.

One of an old English breed of sheep, allied to the Leicester.


washugyu

Blend of Washington + wagyu, after the US state.

The austere appearance of Japanese Premium Beef’s first retail outlet belies the richness of what it purveys: beef called washugyu, a Black Angus/wagyu cross raised in Oregon.

2009 June 10, Florence Fabricant, “An Oregon Trail for Beef”, in New York Times:

Wagyu cattle crossbred with Black Angus to make them hardier.


dairy cow

The Holstein Friesian is an excellent dairy cow. [breed]

He runs a herd of dairy cows, including his own bulls. [cattle beast]

Mastitis impairs a dairy cow’s output. [lactating female]

Any breed of cow bred for the ability to produce large quantities of milk, from which dairy products are made; an individual cattle beast of such a breed; especially, a female cow who has calved and lactated.


Judas steer

A steer that leads other cattle to a slaughterhouse.


Chianina

Unadapted borrowing from Italian chianina


yugada

From Spanish yugada, from yugo (“yoke”) + -ada (“-ful”), from Latin iugum. Compare Latin iugerum (“juger”).

(historical) A traditional Spanish unit of land area, equivalent to about 32.2 ha.


bell cow

When Carlos Hyde was selected in the second round of the 2014 NFL Draft, it was presumed he would eventually take over Frank Gore's role as lead back for the Niners. Now that Gore signed in Indianapolis, the door is wide open for Hyde to seize that opportunity. "He looks the part as far as a bellcow running back," Bleacher Report NFL analyst Chris Simms said of Hyde.

2015 August 13, “Chris Simms: ‘Carlos Hyde can be a stud in the NFL’”, in FOX Sports:

Goldman is used to taking the lead. In fact, The Wall Street Journal’s Susanne Craig reported that other firms were standing by on a “Lloyd watch,” waiting to see what precedent would be set by Wall Street’s traditional bell-cow. As those firms now make their own inevitable bonus decisions, they will have to settle for “me-too” stories.

2008 November 17, Jack Flack, “How Goldman Spun the Inevitable Into Big News”, in The New York Times:

When the issue is a political one, reporters tend to watch for the reactions of certain “bell cow” journalists.

1986, Peter Hannaford, Talking Back to the Media, New York: Facts On File, page 29:

(US, figurative) A leader; an influencer.


cow belt

From the widespread practices venerating cattle in that region in northern India. Influenced by the English term Bible Belt.

(India) A rural region of Northern India, extending over the BIMARU states.


cowlet

—Chicago boasts of a citizen of fine discrimination and delicacy, who, riding in the suburbs with his best girl, passed a stable in the door of which stood a couple of calves. “See,” said the young lady, “those two cute little cowlets.” “Those are not cowlets, Araminta; they are bullets.”

1886, Hamilton Literary Magazine, Clippings, page 110:

A lurid lumination lights lithe Laura’s eyes, / (O, tender cowlet, kick the bucket o’er)— / A look of anger and of pained surprise, / A look that ne’er had lit those orbs before.

1888, The Blue and Gold, volume 15, The Light in Laura’s Eyes, page 172:

Separate all cowlets from the cows, as they drink all the milk. Cowlets should be earning their own living.

1913, Queensland Agricultural Journal, page 226:

After a short while a thin small cow was released from the gangway leading to the menagerie. Provided with a scarlet cape, Juanito strutted forward towards the scampering cowlet. […] So in vest and black clown’s pantaloons, he provoked the cowlet and played the heavy matador. With all the grand airs of a Bombita Chica or a Montes he advanced to the assault. The dutiful cowlet gave a low. The little cow almost laughed to see such sport.

1932, Wyndham Lewis, Snooty Baronet, Haskell House Publishers Ltd., published 1971, page 201:

Book Agent. Oh, so you are interested in farming? Isn’t that a coincidence? The Everyday Encyclopedia Of Useful Facts included a five-hundred-and-seventy-three-page volume on farm and country life. / Mr. Jordan. (Interested) It does! / Book Agent. It certainly does. I think I have some sample leaflets here. (Opens a briefcase and takes out a pamphlet with some colored pages in it) See! Here is a picture showing a group of contented little cowlets browsing by a babbling brook. / Mr. Jordan. (Puzzled) Cow'''lets? / Book Agent. Yes, little cows. Aren’t they dears? / Mr. Jordan. I thought you said they were cows. / Book Agent. (Laughs) Now, aren’t you the clever one, though?

1934, Boyce Loving, Swappers: A Comedy in Three Acts, page 25:

“I am not sure a compilation of odds and ends should be called a ‘book.’ Perhaps ‘booklet’ would be the better designation. My daughter, when quite young, once spoke of a heifer calf she saw grazing on the rim of the road as a ‘cowlet.’ In reality, the wayside animal was a ‘bullet.’ Though this book, or booklet, isn’t even calf-bound, the analogy should have been close enough to make me wary of jumping to a conclusion. However, it is too late now.

1937, Quarterly Bulletin: The Historical Society of Northwestern Ohio, page 17:

YES — imagine, if you can, that all human beings are cows and or bulls for just one day (I just can’t stand the thoughts of being a cow for more than one day). SO — lets^([sic]) take the cow and bull side of the question first. REMEMBER — you are a cow or bull. Mrs. Cow has been home all day busy getting the cotton seed meal and hulls ready for dinner, tending to the little cowlets and bullets and baking a bale of hay.

1959, C. B. Kitchens, X-syrps from the Trickem News Chronic, page 5:

What’s a meta for anyway, I say, if not to mix with chicken lips, cow intestines and pig ganglia, foisted on poor defenseless cowlets held captive in feed lots for a significant portion of their tiny, meaningless lives, destined for the compressed air gun, the hook, and the heavy hammer, and the human Bar-B-Q bun, rotisserie and intestinal villi.

2004, Michael A. Lewis, “Culture”, in Écritage, Arana Gulch Press, published 2010, →ISBN, Endangered Species: January 1, 2004, page 27:


Charolais

A breed of cattle, raised primarily for beef, having a large build and a cream-coloured coat.


cattlehead

en-noun

cattlehead (plural cattlehead or cattleheads)

cattlehead (plural)
cattleheads (plural)

From cattle + head. Interestingly, both are doublets from Proto-Indo-European *kauput- (“head”), through Latin caput (“head”) and from Old English hēafd-, hēafod (“head; top; source; chief”), itself from Proto-Germanic *haubudą (“head”), respectively.

inh

Even assuming that our 50-million Muslims eat up 50-million cattle-heads a year at the rate of one cattlehead per human head per year, we shall still have millions and millions of cattle living and multiplying with our food inside them.

1963, Mother India, volume 29, page 14, column 2:

The reasons for death were more or less similar to cattleheads. In the case of poultry, in all, 1312 died mainly due to Ranikhet. These deaths of livestock comprised 5, 9.6 and 19.5 percent respectively of the present stock of cattleheads, goat and poultry (Tables – 14 and 15).

1984, Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development, Effects of Flood (1984) in Bangladesh: Survey of Nine Villages in Comilla, page 16:

The mobile veterinary unit had been providing health facilities to the ailing cattlehead in the whole of Thar.

The Local Government Engineering Bureau (LGEB) has built 2 killas as shelter for cattlehead.

1992, Raana Haider, A. Atiq Rahman, Saleemul Huq, editors, Cyclone '91 Revisited: A Follow-up Study, Bangladesh Center for Advanced Studies, page 12:

As a result, most farming families now cannot keep more than a pair of cattlehead each, the bare minimum for operating a plough to till the land.

1995, Bara Parang: The Tale of the Developmental Refugees of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, →ISBN, page 65:

Whenever a cattlehead was killed by the tiger, the men sprayed these poisonous chemicals copiously on the carcass and even kept the semi-solid balls of this substance namely carbofuran, B.H.C. Gamma, Lindane, Lintaf and Hepta Chlore etc. inside the fleshy part of the animal.

1995, Rahul Shukla, Killing Grounds: The Saga of Encounters in Wild, Siddhi Books, page 114:

India is perhaps a rare country having one cattlehead per two persons.

2006, Society for Promotion of Wastelands Development, Collection of Foundation Day & Lovraj Kumar Memorial Lectures, “Cattlewealth and Fish”, page 244:

30 and 31 July 1991: Area Affected: Betul, Dewas, Indore and Ujjain; Casualties: 22 persons killed; 150 cattleheads perished; Damages: One house collapsed; Chandora dam damaged and Sapana dam breached.

2006, SC Bhatt, Gopal K. Bhargava, editors, Land and People of Indian States and Union Territories: Madhya Pradesh (volume 15), India: Kalpaz Publications, →ISBN, page 470:

(India) head of cattle; a neat, a beef, a single bovine


Simmenthaler

Synonym of Simmental (“kind of Swiss cattle”)


Simmentaler

Alternative form of Simmenthaler (“kind of Swiss cattle”)


cow-mother

A new generation has appeared, and the universal feminine is expressed not so much as Hathor, the cow-mother, but as Isis, the wife and consort.

1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 217:

(religion) A personification of a maternal cow worshipped as a goddess.


Highland cattle

en-noun

Highland cattle (plural Highland cattle)

A breed of beef cattle originating in the Scotland, with long horns and a long shaggy coat.


Wangus

A breed of beef cattle, a cross-breed of wagyu and American Angus stock.


neatbeast

(archaic, regional) A domesticated bovine animal (cow, bull, steer etc).


Illawarra Shorthorn

Illawarra Shorthorn (plural Illawarra Shorthorns)

An Australian breed of horned, large-framed dairy cattle of a predominantly red colour, with some whites or roans.


Ankole-Watusi

A medium-sized breed of cattle with long, large horns, and originated in Africa.


cowkind

From Middle English cowkynde; equivalent to cow + -kind.