this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2026
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Funny how English has
"Beef", "Pork", "Lamb"
when in some languages its just
[The Word for the Animal]+[The Word for "Meat"]
Literally, your language influences how you think.
My "native" languages are Cantonese and Mandarin and I always knew where the meat came from, like its literally in the word itself. [牛肉，豬肉，羊肉]
Lamb just means young sheep. The dinner version for sheep is mutton.
This language quirk for calling the meat version of an animal different comes from French influence, when the English aristocracy spoke French in court. Beef, pork and mutton comes from the Old French words buef, porc and moton. Which just means ox, swine and sheep.
Interesting that the second character looks like a skeleton torso, since characters are kind of pictograms too. I assume that one means "meat"? ( sorry, duh, you just said so)
You say that but so you have any idea how long it took my daughter to realize Chicken, the animal, is the same as Chicken, the food?
I think mine already figured out by 2. This kid keeps making the animal noises of any animal we happen to be eating. They're also doing "woof woof" at hot dogs.
Those are not actually English words. "Pork" is from French at least. It's a euphemism for the english "swine". Meat is a luxury for the extremely privileged.
Youtube short on topic: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/63DYCz9P1XM
Its a few random European languages in a trenchcoat
in french it's just the name of the animal. Here's a cow. eat cow. A pig ? eat pig.
Maybe it makes it easier to mentally link together the live animal and its meat.
In english it's just the french word... beef, pork, etc... All french.
It's because carninsts are extremely privileged to the point that they were french aristocracy in england.
At least Gordon slaughters them first, you freak!
casually CHOMPS on my pet cow
Are there not even specifics for different cuts or like oxtail or pigs feet or giblets or liver or stuff that aren't "meat" in the muscle fiber sense?
yeah cuts have obscure names
here's a picture
https://jeretiens.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/nom_des_parties_d%C3%A9coupe_boeuf-768x501.png