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.


anoa

Anoas need undisturbed forest and cannot adapt to logged areas. The bad-tempered anoa with its sharp short horns is greatly feared, but in spite of this it is periodically suggested as a potential domestic animal. Anyone who has met with an anoa ridicules this idea.

1998, Jane Whitten, Tropical Wildlife of Southeast Asia, page 16:

The Celebes pig and, to a lesser degree, the anoa were the focus of the Wana's large game interests.

2000, Michael Alvard, “The Impact of Traditional Subsistence Hunting and Trapping on Prey Populations: Data from Wana Horticuluralists of Upland Central Sulwesi, Indonesia”, in John G. Robinson, Elizabeth L. Bennett, editors, Hunting for Sustainability in Tropical Forests, page 223:

They reported seeing mountain anoa trophies for sale, and also a living captive animal, in the Toraja highlands; probable lowland anoas in the Gunung Tangkoko National Park on the N tip of Sulawesi, and evidence of both kinds of anoas in or near the Dumoga-Bone National Park.

2011, Colin Groves, Peter Grubb, Ungulate Taxonomy, unnumbered page:

Either of two related species of small Indonesian water buffalo similar in appearance to deer; Bubalus quarlesi or Bubalus depressicornis.


yak

a traditional Korean flute used in court music


buff

en-noun

buff (countable and uncountable, plural buffs)

From buffe (“leather”), from Middle French buffle (“buffalo”).

A diuell in an euerlaſting garment hath him ; / On whoſe hard heart is button’d vp with ſteele : / A Feind, a Fairie, pittileſſe and ruffe : / A Wolfe, nay worſe, a fellow all in buffe […]

c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], page 94:

The greyish viscid substance constituting the buffy coat.


buff

en-adj

buff (comparative buffer or more buff, superlative buffest or most buff)

buffer (comparative)
more buff (comparative)
buffest (superlative)
most buff (superlative)

The bouncer was a big, buff dude with tattoos, a shaved head, and a serious scowl.

(originally bodybuilding, colloquial) Unusually muscular.


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:


American bison

en-noun

American bison (plural American bison or American bisons)

American bison (plural)
American bisons (plural)

/əˈmɛɹɪkən ˈbaɪ̯sən/

In the year 1521, when Cortez reached Anahuac, the American bison was seen for the first time by civilized Europeans, if we may be permitted to thus characterize the horde of blood thirsty plunder seekers who fought their way to the Aztec capital.

1889, William T. Hornaday, The Extermination of the American Bison:

A bovine mammal, a species of bison, Bison bison.


European bison

European bison (plural European bison or European bisons)

European bison (plural)
European bisons (plural)

Bison bonasus
Bison bonasus#Translingual

The wisent, species Bison bonasus, Europe's heaviest land animal.


wisent

Borrowed from German Wisent. Doublet of bison.

bovine

a cloven-hoofed ruminant mammal of the subfamily Bovinae, cattle

Caucasian wisent

subspecies only surviving as a hybrid, Bison bonasus caucasicus


buffalo

buffalo (plural buffaloes or buffalos or buffalo)

buffaloes (plural)
buffalos (plural)
buffalo (plural)

Borrowed from Portuguese or Spanish búfalo (“buffalo”), from Late Latin būfalus, from Latin būbalus, from Ancient Greek βούβαλος (boúbalos, “antelope, wild ox”). Doublet of bubale and buffle.

der

(slang, US, historical) A looter during the Civil War.


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

the Calf of Man


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.


buffle

From Middle French buffle. Doublet of bubale and buffalo.

[the Malayan tongue word list] An Oxe or Buffle: Cambi

1634, T[homas] H[erbert], A Relation of Some Yeares Trauaile, Begunne Anno 1626. into Afrique and the Greater Asia, […], London: […] William Stansby, and Jacob Bloome, →OCLC:


buffle

en-verb

buffle (third-person singular simple present buffles, present participle buffling, simple past and past participle buffled)

buffles (present singular third-person)
buffling (participle present)
buffled (participle past)
buffled (past)


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


water buffalo

en-noun

water buffalo (plural water buffalos or water buffaloes or water buffalo)

water buffalos (plural)
water buffaloes (plural)
water buffalo (plural)

[ˈwɑɾɚˌbʌfəloʊ]

Bubalus bubalis
Bubalus bubalis#Translingual

A large ungulate, widely used as a domestic animal in Asia, South America. North Africa and Europe: Bubalus bubalis.

(US, colloquial) A water tank mounted on a trailer to be towed by a motor vehicle.


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.

inh

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.


gaur

Borrowed from Hindi गौर (gaur), from Sanskrit गौर (gaura). Attested in English since the early 19th century.

[…] I am sure that the American bison is the grandest of them all. His only rivals for the kingship are the Indian bison, or gaur (Bos gaurus), of Southern India, and the aurochs, or European bison, both of which really surpass him in height, if not in actual balk also.

Of the other ruminants the ox, buffalo, yak, goat, sheep and a few others are domestic animals, while the bison and the gaur, or so-called Indian bison, and a large number of wild goats and sheep have been neglected.

1914, Edward Hamilton Aitken, Concerning Animals and Other Matters:

An Asian species of wild bovine (Bos gaurus), of large size and an untamable disposition.


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.


zebu

From French zébu, from Tibetan (perhaps མཛོ་པོ (mdzo po, “male bull–yak hybrid”), whence also zobo).

A domesticated ox native to Asia and Africa, having a large fleshy hump on its back and a dewlap (Bos primigenius indicus).


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.


bugle

→ French: bugle

From Middle English bugle, from Anglo-Norman and Old French bugle, from Latin buculus (“young bull; ox; steer”).

Then tooke that squire an horne of bugle small, Which hong adowne his side in twisted gold And tassels gay.

1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faery Queene, page 88:

The tongue so rough, that were it licks, it fetches blood. The Greeks used not these, nor Bugles in Physick, not having tried their vertue; though Indian-woods are full of such, yet parts of them are of more efficacy in medicine, (it is thought) than any part of ordinary Oxen.

1678, Joannes Jonstonus (M.D., Polonus.), A Description of the Nature of Four-Footed Beasts, page 31:

All in the merry strand, With the ran, ran tan, And the tippy, tippy tran, And away with the royal bow! wow! wow! And the riddle diddle do, And the bugle's horn, For into the woods we'll run, brave boys, And into the woods we'll run.

1928, Lora Sarah La Mance, The House of Waltman and Its Allied Families, page 17:

a hunting horn, origin. made of the horn of a "bugle" or wild ox

1992, William Shakespeare, Holger Klein, Much Ado about Nothing: A New Critical Edition, page 145:


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.


bison

bison (plural bison or (chiefly dated) bisons or (rare) bisontes)

bison (plural)
bisons (dated plural)
bisontes (plural rare)

From Middle English bysontes, bysountes pl, from Middle French bison, from Latin bisōn, bisōnt- (“wild ox”).
The Latin term is recorded in the 1st century, likely a direct loan from Proto-Germanic *wisundaz (“wild ox, aurochs”) (see for full etymology). Akin to Old High German wisunt (“bison”), German Wisent (“bison”), Old English wesend, wusend (“bison, buffalo, wild ox”), Middle Dutch wēsent (“wild ox”). Doublet of wisent.


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.


ruck

rook (most accents without the foot-strut split)

From Middle English ruke, from or related to Old Norse hraukr, which is from Proto-Germanic *hraukaz (“haystack, heap”). Compare Icelandic hrúka, Swedish ruka.

меле

contest for possession of the ball in Rugby

Australian rules football
Australian rules football#English

A contest in games in which the ball is thrown or bounced in the air and two players from opposing teams attempt to give their team an advantage, typically by tapping the ball to a teammate.

A player who competes in said contests; a ruckman or ruckwoman.

(now rare) Either of a ruckman or a ruck rover, but not a rover.

Any one of a ruckman, a ruck rover or a rover; a follower.

(rugby union) The situation formed when a player carrying the ball is brought to the ground and one or more members of each side are engaged above the ball, trying to win possession of it; a loose scrum.


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.


zubr

From Polish żubr, from Proto-Slavic *zǫbrъ, *izǫbrъ, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *ǵómbʰos (“tooth, horn, peg”).

der

Herberstein and Martin Cronner assert that the name of Bison is always bestowed on the animal called Zubr or Zumbr by the Poles that the name of Aurochs or Urus is improperly bestowed upon it by the Germans; that these last mentioned names apply solely to the urus or Thur of the Polish nation and they add, that the thur was at that period found only in Massovia, near Warsaw; and they even name the particular villages the inhabitants of which were charged with its conservation. During their days, the thur or wild bull appears to have been kept as a curiosity, as the zubr or modern aurochs is at this day, Anthony Schneebergen designates by the name of Thur a species of wild bull, differing from the domestic breed in few particulars, except its greater size, the uniformly black colour of the males, and the beauty of its coat; its horns were always directed forwards. This last character excludes the identity of the thur and buffalo presumed by Pallas. The forward direction of the horns, the greater size, the similarity of form to that of the domestic bull, all established and described by observers who were at the same time sufficiently familiar with the zubr or modern aurochs, prove it to have been a diiferent animal from that last named.

1829-1831, James Wilson, "Essays on the Origin and Natural History of the Domestic Animals.", "Essay III: On the origin and natural history of the domestic ox, and its allied species", The Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, Volume II, page 191

It is not improbable that the Bison mentioned by Seneca and Pliny was the Bonasus of Aristotle, and the Zubr and Auerochs of the moderns, while the Urus of these writers seems to be now extinct as a wild animal, but was perhaps the original of our present domestic cattle.* * Bojanus, however, is of a different opinion.

1832, Dr. von Jarocki, translator and abridger unknown, Arcana of Science and Art, Fifth Year, page 228

1838-05, W. Weissenborn, "On the Influence of Man in modifying the Zoological Featurs of the Globe; with Statistical Accounts respecting a few of the more important Species", The Magazine of Natural History
(page 239) The Zubr,* (Pr. Zhubr), Bos urus. * I give the preference to this name of the animal, because it is so called in the country where it now exists, and because many of its other synonyms are subject to controversy.
(page 251-252) In addition to what Bojanus alleges, as being favorable to the opinion that the turs of Masovia were a few individuals of the original wild ox, (Bos taurus), which had escaped death or domestication, such as, he says, are still found in a few parks of Scotland and England; or what Jarocki states to prove that the tur was the same animal as the zubr which he thinks was called tur in Muscovia and Samogitia, and zubr in Lithuania, I shall say, in corroboration of the latter opinion, that nearly all that Herberstein knew about the tur from hearsay, is fabulous; (for instance, that it breeds with tame cows, but that the progeny does not come to perfection, "vituli qui nascuntur non sunt vitales;" that the turs which have mixed with tame cows, are expelled from their herd, as infamous, &c.) the report which he makes respecting the carcass of a tur, given to him by King Sigismundus Augustus, bears strong evidence of his having received a zubr, which the men who delivered it called tur, whereas he himself allows that he was absent at the time the present was received.

As an appendix to our history of the bison, it will not be out of place, if we here proceed to give a short sketch of the history of its Old World relative, the little known and almost extinct aurochs or zubr, our information respecting which is derived from a valuable paper by Dr. Weissenborn of Weimar, published in the 'Magazine of Natural History for May and June 1838.'

1840, James Rennie, The Menageries: Quadrapeds, volume 3, page 352:

The Zubr, or European Bison.*—(Bison zubris.)
The bonasos, or monapos, described by Aristotle as inhabiting Pæonia (the modern province of Bulgaria, in Turkey), and the bison, which Pausanias and Oppian describe as existing in the same locality, appear to be the present species, although no longer found there; and it is, no doubt, the animal called zimbr in Moldavia, about the time of Demetrius Cantemir. It has also been called wisen, wisant, visant, ure, our, auer, auerocks, urochs, and tur; evidently originating in the more classic terms bison, urus, and taurus. There is a third species of bison (Bison Caucasica), inhabiting Mount Caucasus, and probably some districts of India and other parts of Asia.

1841, James H. Fennell, A Natural History of British and Foreign Quadrupeds, page 520:

(obsolete) One of several species of European bison or aurochs, which were unclearly delineated in the 1800s when this sense was in use.

THE European bison, wisent or zubr (Bison bonasus) seems to be coming back into circulation again, at least among menagerie keepers. The London Zoo has a pair of them...

1959-11-19, "Market in European Bison", The New Scientist, page 981

Near it is Bialowieza, the remainder of the European primeval forest. Bialowieza is home to the zubr, or Polish bison, which is a cousin of the American buffalo. In addition to the zubr, the Polish forests are also home to the wild boar, eagles, falcons, and many other animals.

1994, Don McKay, Our Global Village - Poland: A Cultural Resource Guide, Lorenz Educational Press, page 3

The zubr, or European bison (Bison bonasus bonasus), had been the Russian Empire's largest land mammal, its range limited to two widely separated, and geographically disparate, protected preserves: ...

1999, Douglas R. Weiner, A Little Corner of Freedom: Russian Nature Protection from Stalin to Gorbachëv, University of California Press, page 65:

2002-02-10, Alex, "Bison hair found in Greenland", sci.archeology, https://groups.google.com/d/msg/sci.archaeology/rIGlCbipg3Y/DGHi3djUVnEJ
A notriceable population of "zubr" (european bison) still exists in Poland and Belorus.

2003-10-14, Peter H.M. Brooks, "Aurocks, hares and warthog", uk.food+drink.misc, https://groups.google.com/d/msg/uk.food+drink.misc/vji_2hfDHAM/BhCPjJ9S9qIJ
The aurocks (Bos Urus or Bos primigenius) existed in Europe until fairly recently - Caesar called them Urus and Charlemagne hunted them. The Lithuanian Zubr (Bos Bison) is sometimes, incorrectly, called an aurock.

2004-06-01, Brian M. Scott, "Re: Plot-noodling! (following on from "Twisting the Cliche")", rec.arts.sf.composition, https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rec.arts.sf.composition/0QQYMuojZYo/oH8DtE622u8J
Aurochs? (Of which the last is thought to have died in Poland in 1627.) Probably not, since they simply were wild, but I haven't found anything else besides the wisent (zubr, European bison).

The wisent, the European bison (Bison bonasus).


longhorn

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


carabao

/kæɹəˈbeɪəʊ/

Borrowed from Spanish carabao, from Waray-Waray karabaw, from Malay kerbau, from Proto-Malayic *kAr(ə)baw, ultimately from Proto-Mon-Khmer *krpiʔ ~ *krpiiw ~ *krpuʔ ~ *(kr)puh (“buffalo”). Compare Khmer ក្របី (krɑɑbəy), Halang kơpùa, Indonesian kerbau, Javanese ꦏꦼꦧꦺꦴ (kebo), Thai กระบือ (grà-bʉʉ).

The weaker carabaos are slaughtered for meat, the stronger ones put to work on Golgotha, and the drivers are assimilated into the workforce.

Filipinos tell several stories about the carabao. The Tagalog, who live mainly on Luzon, tell the following story about how the carabao, one of the largest animals in the country, is tricked by one of the smallest animals, a hummingbird.

2001, Greg Nickles, Philippines: The Culture, page 30:

The Malay people who arrived in the Philippines between 1500 B.C. and 500 B.C. introduced the carabao as a work animal. Today the carabao, also known as the water buffalo, is a very important animal in the Philippines. Carabaos are popular farm animals.

2005, Cindy Fazzi, How to Draw the Philippines's Sights and Symbols, page 24:

A domesticated subspecies of water buffalo, Bubalus bubalis carabanesis.


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.


Brahma

Borrowed from Sanskrit ब्रह्मा (brahmā).


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.


aurochs

en-noun

aurochs (plural aurochs or aurochses or aurochsen)

aurochs (plural)
aurochses (plural)
aurochsen (plural)

Borrowed from German Aurochs, an early variant of Auerochse, from Middle High German ūrochse (“aurochs”), from Old High German ūrohso (“aurochs”), a compound consisting of ūro (“aurochs”) (from Proto-Germanic *ūraz, *ūrô (“aurochs”)) + ohso (“ox”). Akin to Old English ūr (“aurochs”), Old Norse úrr (“aurochs”), Middle Low German ūrosse (“aurochs”), Old English oxa (“ox”). More at ox.

Bos primigenius
Bos primigenius#Translingual

An extinct European mammal, Bos primigenius, the ancestor of domestic cattle.


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.


ure

From Middle French ure or its etymon Latin ūrus. Doublet of urus.

The Vre therefoꝛe ryſeth in the fardeſt partes of all Richmondeſhyꝛe, among the Coterine hilles, in a moſſe, towarde the weſt fourtéene myles beyonde Mydleham.

1577, William Harrison, “[An Historicall Description of the Islande of Britayne, […].] Of such Riuers as fall into the Sea, betweene Humber to the Thames.”, in The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande […], volume I, London: […] [Henry Bynneman] for Iohn Harrison, →OCLC, folio 31, verso, column 1:

The Auer or Ure ox or European Bison, (bos urus, bonasus, bison,) is one of the largest oxen, and distinguished by a curly manelike product about the head and neck, by a very broad, arched forehead, and by moderate horns situated far apart, and being curved inward and upward in the shape of a crescent.[…]Some extracts from his work are here presented, because the opinion hitherto prevailing in certain circles that our common cattle were the offspring of the Ure; but according to these extracts it will be seen that several striking anatomical differences are found to exist between the Ure and our common cattle.[…]The Ure has fourteen vertebræ, and as many pairs of ribs, or one pair more than common cattle, but has only five lumbar vertebræ of which the common cattle have six.[…]In the old Ure, there was found in the midst of the two seminal passages, vessels, a single duct, shaped somewhat like a bag, one inch in diameter and four and a half inches in length, which is divided in front and at the top into two arching branches, like the horns of the uterus of the cow, extending as channels of 3 to 4 inches in width to the testicle, and there terminating in a cul-de-sac.[…]From the above it appears that the origin of the domesticated cattle and their original native country is, as yet, not fully ascertained. Formerly the ure was considered the parent of the same, but this is improbable on account of the anatomical differences between the ure and the common cattle.

1864, “Species of Cattle, and Origin of the Domesticated Cattle”, in Eighteenth Annual Report of the Ohio State Board of Agriculture, with an Abstract of the Proceedings of the County Agricultural Societies: to the General Assembly of Ohio, for the Year 1863, Columbus: Richard Nevins, pages 365, 366, 368:

In the Nibelungen Lied both beasts, also the giant elk, are spoken of as not extinct when that poem was written:— / Then slew he speedily a Wisent and an Elk, / Strong Ures and a giant stag (Schelch). / Cæsar describes the ure as “little smaller than an elephant, but in appearance like an ox, of great strength and speed; it never suffers itself to be tamed, and spares no man it sees. To have killed an ure is held in highest honour among the Germans, and its horns, set in silver, serve as drinking vessels at their carouses.”

1911, S. Baring-Gould, “Chapter VIII. The Fils Thal”, in The Land of Teck and Its Neighbourhood; […], London: John Lane, The Bodley Head; New York: John Lane Company, pages 176–177:

The history of extinction of an animal has rarely been so rich in documents of all kinds as the history of the Ure or Aurochs, the second big-game representative of the bovine family in Europe, and one of the most remarkable species of wild oxen in the world. The special high interest attached to this animal is due to the fact that it is generally admitted to be the ancestral form of most European cattle breeds. The Ure ceased to exist in early historical times, though a small number of individuals survived in Poland as late as the XVII century.[…]From the very early times, the first mention being that of 1510, the herds of Bos primigenius were under the protection and custody of special game-rangers who were free of all other occupation, as well as of all tax-paying, and were to look only after the wild Ures, feeding them in winter with hay collected from the adjoining meadows, and bringing back to the forest the individuals that occasionally went astray.

1952, Ochrona przyrody, volume 20, pages 32, 33:


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.


urus

Synonym of jatra (“annual village festival in India”)


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.


kouprey

A wild, forest-dwelling ox, Bos sauveli, from Vietnam and surrounding countries.


banteng

A wild ox, Bos javanicus, found in Borneo, Malaysia and the Indochina peninsula.


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.


yakalo

“Yakalos” breed true to type, are sturdy and able to forage for themselves, he said.

1924 July 8, “Breed Yaks with Bison: New Animal Called Yakalo Good Beef Producer”, in Ogden Standard-Examiner, Ogden, Utah, page 8:

The meat of yakalos is said to be almost identical with beef aside from being finer-grained.

1926 December 23, “Yakalos, New Stock Breed, May Solve Meat Problem”, in Indiana Weekly Messenger, Indiana, Pennsylvania, page 7:

Instead of beefalo, he would have yakalo.

1975 November 2, D.K. Woodman, “The Case of the Reluctant Tibetan Yak”, in Mansfield News-Journal, Mansfield, Ohio, page 4C:

A hybrid cross of a yak (Bos grunniens) and an American bison (Bison bison).


Cape buffalo

Syncerus caffer
Syncerus caffer#Translingual

A large African bovid, of species Syncerus caffer.

(specifically) of the subspecies Syncerus caffer caffer found in southern and eastern Africa.


African buffalo

en-noun

African buffalo (plural African buffalos)


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:


saola

Borrowed from Vietnamese sao la, probably from Lao ເສົາຫລ (sao la, “spindle[-horned]”) or some other Tai-Kadai language.

2013, C. Michele Thompson, 10: Would a saola by any other name still be a saola?, Hue-Tam Ho Tai, Mark Sidel (editors), State, Society and the Market in Contemporary Vietnam, Taylor & Francis (Routledge), page 185,
The current consensus is that the saola is so rare and so solitary in terms of genetic relatives that it should be placed not only in its own separate genus (Pseudoryx) but also in its own tribe (Pseudorygini) within the subfamily Bovinae.

Killing or capture of saola is prohibited by law in both Vietnam and Lao PDR, and the sale of wildlife in both countries is generally illegal, but there is insufficient enforcement of these laws in both countries.

2014, William Robichaud, Barney Long, “Chapter 19: Saola Pseudoryx nghetinhensis Dung, Giao, Chinh, Touc, Arctander & Mackinnon, 1993”, in Mario Melletti, James Burton, editors, Ecology, Evolution and Behaviour of Wild Cattle: Implications for Conservation, Cambridge University Press, page 323:

2015, William deBuys, The Last Unicorn: A Search for One of Earth's Rarest Creatures, Hachette (Little, Brown and Company), unnumbered page,
It is surprising, twenty years after saola first attracted the world's attention, that so little about the species is known.

A critically endangered ruminant of species Pseudoryx nghetinhensis, of Vietnam and Laos.


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.


bubale

From Latin būbalus, from Ancient Greek βούβαλος (boúbalos). Doublet of buffalo and buffle.

Any of several African buffalos of the genus Bubalus.


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.


tamaraw

The habitat requirements of the tamaraw appear to be fairly flexible, and present habitat use reflects human pressures rather than the animal's preferences. In the past, tamaraw were found in virtually all parts of Mindoro, from sea level to mountain tops.

1983, National Research Council (U.S.) Advisory Committee on Technology Innovation, Managing Tropical Animal Resources: Little-Known Asian Animals with a Promising Economic Future, page 61:

1994, Mary Emanoil, Encyclopedia of Endangered Species, Volume 1, International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, page 364,
In the early 1900s, there were an estimated 10,000 tamaraws on Mindoro; because of excessive hunting and loss of habitat, the population had decreased to less than 150-200 animals by 1971.

If that person explains that a tamaraw is a bovine animal, brown in color, found in the Philippines, I can take tamaraw to designate something like my idea of a brown cow. As a matter of fact, though, tamaraw are actually more like small water buffalo.

2010, Patricia Sheridan, Locke: A Guide for the Perplexed, page 57:

A small, dark brown, hoofed buffalo, Bubalus mindorensis, found only in Mindoro in the Philippines.


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.


arni

Besides these three species and the zebu, the yak, the gayal, and the arni (not to mention the buffalo or genus Bubalus) have been domesticated; making altogether seven species of Bos.

1868, Charles Darwin, The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, Vol. I.:

In the arni of India they are enormously long.

1904, Arthur Erwin Brown, “The Zoology of North American Big Game”, in American Big Game in Its Haunts:

Bubalus arnee
Bubalus arnee#Translingual


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

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.


zamouse

Ultimately from Arabic جاموس (jāmūs, “buffalo”).

A West African buffalo, Syncerus caffer brachyceros, with short horns and large ears.


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:


gayal

From Bengali গয়াল (goẏal), from Sanskrit गौर (gāŭra) or Sanskrit गौः (gāŭra). Compare gaur.

Bos frontalis, a Southern Asiatic species of domestic cattle.


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.


sarlyk

From Russian сарлык (sarlyk), most likely from a Turkic source, see Tuvan сарлык (sarlık).


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.


plains bison

Bison bison bison
Bison bison bison#Translingual

Bison bison bison, one of the two subspecies of the American bison, the other being the wood bison.


Jafarabadi

One of a breed of water buffalo from Jafarabad, India. It is known for its large size.


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.


sapiutan

Bubalus depressicornis, a small Indonesian water buffalo.


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.


zebuine

In addition to potential for fertility improvements in ruminants, for example decreasing the age of first-calving in zebuine cattle, there is sufficient genetic variability in feed intake, independent of liveweight and daily gain (Flachowsky and Brade 2007) to permit selection for this trait.

2012, Veerasamy Sejian, S.M.K. Naqvi, Thaddeus Ezeji, Environmental Stress and Amelioration in Livestock Production, →ISBN:

The tropical climate produces zebuine hides that are lighter and thinner than in Europe.

2015, Joseph Strasser, Bangladesh's Leather Industry, →ISBN, page 101:

The quantity of H. irritans per animal seems to be greater in taurine than in zebuine cows in Brazil, and size and color influence colonization.

2016, Carlos Brisola Marcondes, Arthropod Borne Diseases, →ISBN, page 478:


Judas steer

A steer that leads other cattle to a slaughterhouse.


zubron

(uncommon) A hybrid between domestic cattle and wisent.

zubron

hybrid of the wisent and domestic cattle


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.


buffalypso

If we were able to substantially increase the size of Trinidad and Tobago's buffalypso herd, we would have an extremely valuable export commodity.

1984, New Zealand Veterinary Association: Dairy Cattle Society, Proceedings of the Seminar, page 127:

These techniques would also promote the exploitation of unique material, such as the buffalypso of Trinidad and Tobago and blackbelly sheep of Barbados.

1989, Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture, Strategy of Action for Reactivation of Agriculture in the Caribbean Countries, page 44:

Driving south from Port of Spain along the Uriah Butler highway, you will see sugar, citrus and rice fields, maybe a few buffalypso (buffaloes which have been selectively bred for meat), and Hindu temples and mosques.

2014, Sarah Cameron, Trinidad and Tobago Footprint Focus Guide, →ISBN, page 58..:

A variety of water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis), developed in 1949 by Trinidad veterinarian Stephen Bennett for meat and haulage.


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.


American buffalo

en-noun

American buffalo (plural American buffalo or American buffalos or American buffaloes)

American buffalo (plural)
American buffalos (plural)
American buffaloes (plural)

A gold bullion coin first offered for sale by the United States Mint in 2006.


plains buffalo

Bison bison bison; Synonym of plains bison


wood buffalo

Bison bison athabascae
Bison bison athabascae#Translingual

Bison bison athabascae; Synonym of wood bison


North American buffalo

North American buffalo (plural North American buffalo)

American buffalo
American buffalo#English

Bison bison (“B. bison”); Synonym of American bison (“American buffalo”)


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

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).


Indian bison

Indian bison (plural Indian bison or Indian bisons)

Indian bison (plural)
Indian bisons (plural)

[…] I am sure that the American bison is the grandest of them all. His only rivals for the kingship are the Indian bison, or gaur (Bos gaurus), of Southern India, and the aurochs, or European bison, both of which really surpass him in height, if not in actual balk also.

1889, William T. Hornaday, The Extermination of the American Bison:


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.


spindlehorn

From spindle + horn, after the appearance of the horns.

Synonym of saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis)