Each of us bought, and more than once, beef. Everyone perfectly understands what kind of meat it is, but why it is called that way, no one knows for certain. Where did this injustice in relation to cow meat come from, if the product from a horse is called horse meat, pig, respectively, pork, lamb, as expected, lamb, chicken - chicken and so on Further. How did “beef” appear, and why are “cows” attached to this definition?
1. Ancient origins
In the Russian Federation, this is the name not only for cow meat, but also for everyone who belongs to the group of cattle from time immemorial. That is, this definition also applies to the meat of an ox, bull and calves. Although in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the name was related specifically to the cow product. If you look at the meaning of "beef" in Krylov's dictionary, we will see that it is a derivative of "govedo" (common Slavic) - bull, cattle. At the same time, the word “cow” is used in English, “govs” in Indo-European, and “kov” in Armenian. They all mean "cow".
All of these words have the same root, but the ed-o suffix is somewhat surprising.
Dahl paid a lot of attention to the word "beef" in his dictionary. There is even a picture of a cow that has been divided into parts. As for the very interpretation of this definition, it is similar to Krylovsky - it means representatives of cattle. It is said that "beef" should be understood as taken from a bull. To make it easier for users to understand, the author of the dictionary made a description of all parts of beef without exception.
The definition in this sense has survived to our times in most Slavic languages. It is used in the lexicon of Czechs, Serbs, Bulgarians and others.
In fact, the terminology and the meaning of what is being put into this concept today have no points of contact. It's all about the culture of the people. Since ancient times, the Slavs, talking about the bull, called it "govedo", respectively, the meat from it was called "beef". By the way, only bovine meat was consumed. Cows were bred exclusively for dairy production. Only in urgent cases, for example, in hunger, did they eat cow meat.
This is stated in the ancient chronicles, in particular, "Russian Truth", compiled in the eleventh century by Yaroslav the Wise.
2. Interesting fact
In the vocabulary of the Russian people there is also "fast", which means "to fast". In sound, of course, it is very similar to the word we are discussing, but they even have a different root. The word "fast" is based on "govty" (Old Church Slavonic), which means "revere", "fast", "please". With a more detailed examination of the terms, a number of experts bring them closer together. They perceive "gou" (Old Indian) in the format of a spiritual direction - "sacrifice". To some extent, this brings some religiosity. But there is nothing in common with the modern concept of "fasting", like fasting in our religion, between them.
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Today, cow meat is widely used in food, but it is not considered in terms of the sex of the animal. There is simply a general designation - beef.
In fact, this word does not reflect the real quality of the product. As for "veal" (the same meat of the same animals), it is applied to a product from younger individuals, which means that its quality is an order of magnitude higher, as well as its characteristics.
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It is interesting! In Western European countries, this word does not occur at all. For the preparation of meat dishes, they take the meat of calves or, in some cases, a bull. Cow, like ox, is for the most part considered second-grade raw materials and rarely participates in the cooking process.
It is also interesting that the age of the animal also affects the name of this type of meat. Beef - if the cow was more than three years old, young beef - the animal was three months to three years old, and dairy veal - if the calf was from two weeks to three months.
Continuing the topic read, Why did the British paint white stripes on cows during World War II.
A source: https://novate.ru/blogs/090520/54454/