tugs (07/08/82)
WRT the discussion about the origins of English names for meat: most
terms come from the French for the animal in question. Hence we get
beef (boeuf), pork (porc) and mutton (mouton). One can guess that the
names developed from the time when the ruling classes in England spoke
French (c. 12th-14th centuries). An interesting inference from this is
that perhaps the names came to mean the meat specifically since the
French-speaking people only came into contact with the animals in question
in the dining hall, while the poor slobs who spoke middle English had
to look after the damn things.
Steve Hull