A Rose is a Rose is a Rose....
A male elephant is called a bull. A female elephant is a cow. This holds true for a number of other animals, too. If, however, you were referring to any elephant in general you would call it---an elephant.
Now, regarding the animals we commonly call cows, what kind of animal are they anyway? There are (plural) beef cattle and milk cattle--both cows and bulls. But what is the singular of cattle?
Labels: food for thought, the English language
posted by mom | 12:19 PM
4 Comments:
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Mom, I figured this out for you.
I don't know why I am writing this, becuase you are sitting right here, but here's the answer.
There is no universally accepted term for a single cow/bull of indeterminate sex (though I hope that's not a problem) but several scientists have resorted to calling the individual animal a catron-unit: a member of the cattle herd.
There you go: CATRON-UNIT.
Thanks Jon.
Can you break down the etymology of this word for me? I'm assuming the "cat" is for cattle, the "unit" is clearly a designation for a single individual (is that redundant?), but I'm unclear of the origin of "ron" in this usage.
Thank you in advance for your clarification.
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