English is a super weird language. We have there, their, they’re, and to, too, two. Nothing makes sense, and we have even weirder ways to refer to food. Like, why is it called beef and not cow, when fish is fish, chicken is chicken, and turkey is turkey? How did these references come to be? Well according to history, here is how cow became beef.
It’s All French to Me
According to the Daily Meal who wrote about this topic earlier this year, when the French conquered Britain in 1066 in the Battle of Hastings, the French made their way into town and started to refer to meat differently than the poor and recently defeated Anglo-Saxons.
The French referred to cow as boeuf, which then got morphed to today’s beef. The French words stuck and that is how we got the word beef and not cow, which makes sense, seeing as how French words tend to litter the English language.
Other Words That Changed
The French left their mark on other meats as well. Pig was referred to as porc, later becoming pork. Though I would say that most people refer to chicken and turkey as chicken or turkey respectively, the term poultry came from the French referencing females hens as poulet. Fish also received a name: poisson. It never stuck though, which makes sense — it looks a hell of a lot like poison.
On the other hand, deer became venison, not because of the French word, but because of the Latin word venor (meaning to hunt or kill). This was because deer was the most common thing to hunt during the time of the invasion and venison was the name for any animal that was hunted.
So, why is it called beef? It is all because English has been impacted by many other languages throughout history. The Norman invasion just so happened to greatly impact the language, including the words for certain meats. I would love to be able to start the “cow instead of beef” counter-revolution, but I unfortunately don’t think my army of one would get too far.