The (supposed, make of it what you will) linguistic origin of English meat words. They largely stem from French following the Norman Conquest of 1066. While English-speaking peasants raised the livestock, French-speaking nobles used different terms for the meat they ate. #language #english
"Have you ever wondered why the meat of cows, pigs, sheep, and deer is called beef, pork, mutton, and venison? And only chicken is still just chicken. Surprisingly, it all goes back to history. 1066, England speaks Old English, while France, obviously, speaks French. But then, the Norman Duke, William the Conqueror, decided to live up to his name. He gathered an army, crossed the English Channel, and conquered England, becoming king. And just like that, French became the language of England's nobility. Bonjour. And what kind of meat does the nobility usually eat? Well, pretty much any kind, because they're rich. So it turned out that ordinary peasants kept raising the animals and calling them by their Old English names. Cow, pig, sheep, and deer. But the nobility called the meat by its French names. Buff, pork, mutton, and venison. Which eventually turned into the words we use today. But what about chicken? Well, absolutely everyone ate chicken. For the elite, it wasn't considered luxury meat. And for common people, it was one of the easiest sources of meat to get. That's why its name stayed the way ordinary people called it. Chicken."
๐ฌ Discussion
The (supposed, make of it what you will) linguistic origin of English meat words. They largely stem from French following the Norman Conquest of 1066. While English-speaking peasants raised the livestock, French-speaking nobles used different terms for the meat they ate. #language #english