Why do we call cow meat “beef” and chicken meat “chicken?”

Illustration by Nemo

It is true that we English-speakers tend to name our meat courses after the animal in some cases, but not in others.  Case in point: the meat of cows, pigs, sheep and deer are usually referred to as beef, pork, mutton and venison respectively.  Why is that?

Blame the Normans!

The general belief is that the dawn of our not eating “cow” came around 1066 when the Saxons of England were compelled to welcome their new Norman overlords.  The idea is that, while the English-speaking Saxon peasants were raising the cows and pigs, they referred to them as such, while the Norman nobility used the French words for the animals when they encountered the creatures – which would have been on a platter.

Over time, the French words became commonly used for the cooked forms of the meat, while the Saxon words remained in use for the living animals.  This has borne out with some animals, but not all.  Here’s a quick rundown of the etymology of some of the creatures labeled under the alleged Norman conqueror effect:

Cow – Old English cu

Beef - Old French buef

Pig - Old English picg

Pork - Old French porc

Deer - Old English deor

Venison - Old French venesoun

Sheep - Old English sceap

Mutton - Old French moton

What about poultry and poisson?

Some meats escaped this effect, however, despite the fact that the Normans did eat such creatures as rabbit and fish and chicken.  Perhaps the French-speaking overlords called their chicken meat some variant of “poultry,” but if they did, it didn’t stick around in common dinner table usage.  We do categorize bird meat as “poultry” and “fowl” on restaurant menus and supermarket sections, but when it’s on the plate we’re inclined to call it “chicken, duck, turkey,” and so forth.

“Poultry,” by the way, comes from the Old French pouletrie, while “fowl” is from the Old English fugel. 

Back in the English day, your eatin’ chicken was often a “capon,” but both terms come from English regardless (“chicken” from the Old English cicen and “capon” from Old English capon – specifically a gelded rooster.)

Rabbits’ titles were under French influence all around.  Your eatin’ rabbits (specifically adult ones) were referred to as coneys.  “Coney” is billed as an Anglo-French word (from Anglo-French conis), and “rabbit” may come from a French-related Belgian dialect, so there appears to have been no fully English word in use for rabbits at that time anyway.   

Meanwhile, fish have not ended up being called anything like “poisson” in regular English usage.  We either refer to general “fish” or “seafood” or to the individual species being eaten (such as “cod, tuna and lobster”…or as spoken where I’m from, “cahd, tuner and lobstah.”)

Aquatic animals get to have the same name whether they’re in the water or on a plate, and they include a smattering of both French and English origins.  For example, “mackerel” comes from the Old French maquerel  and “oyster” from Old French oistr, while “cod” derives from Old English codd and “bass” from Old English bærs.

The general terms?  All English.  You’ll see your “poisson” on a French restaurant menu, but in English you’ll be ordering from a list of “fish” (Old English fisc) or “shellfish” (Old English scylfiscas) or that new-fangled American term “seafood” (1836, American English, from sea + food…aren’t we clever?).

As to why some meats are not referred to by their Old French dinner plate titles is unknown.  Maybe we wanted to call each fish type by its name from the stream to show off diversity in fishing skills.  Maybe the already-Frenchish word for rabbit was good enough.  Maybe the whole reason we don’t serve up a plate of country fried “poultry” is so that we don’t mess with the perennially useful phrase – “tastes like chicken!”

The proof is in the… garbage.

The exact reason we speak as we do has not been substantiated beyond all doubt, but I can leave you with a lovely little recipe from a fifteenth-century cookbook that refers to chickens as “chickens” alongside beef and mutton (spelled moton).   It’s a preparation of garbagys – that is, garbage – that is, the giblets and otherwise discarded parts of your chickens.  Or “chykonys,” as we shall spell them , back in these days of Middle English and nonstandardized spelling.

Garbage.—Take fayre garbagys of chykonys, as þe hed, þe fete, þe lyuerys, an þe gysowrys; washe hem clene, an caste hem in a fayre potte, an caste þer-to freysshe brothe of Beef or ellys of moton, an let it boyle; an a-lye it wyth brede, an ley on Pepir an Safroun, Maces, Clowys, an a lytil verious an salt, an serue forth in the maner as a Sewe.

Wanna try it?  Here’s a recipe!  I hear it tastes like chicken.  If you try this at home, do let me know how it goes for you.  Happy meat-eating!