different between cattle vs barth

English

Etymology

From Middle English catel, from Anglo-Norman catel (“personal property”), from Old Northern French (compare French cheptel, Old French chetel, chatel, also English chattel) from Medieval Latin capit?le, from Latin capit?lis (“of the head”) (whence also capital, from caput (“head”) + -alis (“-al”)). For the sense evolution, compare pecuniary and fee.

Pronunciation

• enPR: k?t'l, IPA^(key): /?kæt(?)l/
• Hyphenation: cat?tle
• Rhymes: -æt?l

Noun

cattle pl (normally plural, singular cattle)

1. Domesticated bovine animals (cows, bulls, steers etc).

   Do you want to raise cattle?

2. Certain other livestock, such as sheep, pigs or horses.
3. (derogatory, figuratively) People who resemble domesticated bovine animals in behavior or destiny.
4. (obsolete, English law, sometimes countable) chattel

   goods and cattle
5. (uncountable, rare) Used in restricted contexts to refer to the meat derived from cattle.
   • a. 1964, Stephen Henry Roberts, The Squatting Age in Australia, 1835–1847,^[5] Melbourne University Press (1964), page 315:

     The temptation of a lone white man was too great for any gathering of myall-natives, and sheep-fat and cattle-steak seemed there for the spearing, so that a stockman always ran the risk of attack, especially if his shepherds interfered with the native women.

   • a. 1978, Barry Hannah, “Eating Wife and Friends”, in Airships, Grove Press (1994), ?ISBN, page 137:

     “But you cooked a human being and ate him,” say I.

     “I couldn’t help it,” says she. “I remember the cattle steaks of the old days, the juicy pork, the dripping joints of lamb, the venison.”

   • 1996 April 3, Emmett Jordan, "Re: AR activist arrested for spreading 'Mad Cow' disease in US", in rec.food.veg, Usenet:

     Believe it or not Big Mac is one of the ultra radicals who provide fast food cattle burgers to interstate vehicles who drive all over the place providing scraps for rats, cats, flies, etc, so that the Mad Cow Disease might spread even faster than it would otherwise do.

   • 2005 June 25, "Serge" (username), "Re: WOW!!!! WHALE BURGERS...... McDonalds Don't You Get Any Ideas", in aus.politics and other newsgroups, Usenet:

     If a particular whale species isn't endangered, then there's not a blind bit of difference between butchering them or cattle.

     Whale burgers. Cattle burgers......no difference!

Usage notes

For the animals themselves, "cattle" is normally only used in the plural.

• I have fifteen cattle.
• How many cattle?

There is no universally accepted singular generic word for "cattle", although the term cattlebeast is used in some regions, and there is the archaic neat. For many people, only gendered words such as "bull" and "cow" are used for adults, "calf" for the young, etc., though especially children will use "cow" for all three (as in cowboy).

• There are five cows and a calf in that herd of cattle.

Where the gender is unknown, "cow" is sometimes used (although properly a cow is only an adult female).

• Is that a cow in the road?

The phrase "head of cattle" may be used without regard for gender. Chiefly in Indian English, this has also given rise to the compound cattlehead.

• One head of cattle
• He sold 50 head of cattle last year.

Occasionally "cattle" may be found in singular use:

• First I saw the mandible, which looked a bit like a strange-shaped cattle; then I saw the cervical vertebrae, which looked like a horse ("Intact Ottoman 'war camel' found in Austrian cellar", BBC, 2015 April 02)

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:cattle.

Synonyms

• (domesticated bovine animals): beef, Bos (scientific), bovine, cattlebeast, cattlehead, neat
• (people who resemble domesticated bovine animals in behavior or destiny): sheeple (pejorative)

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

Anagrams

• Catlet, catlet, cattel, tectal

English

Etymology

Etymology unknown.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -??(?)?

Noun

barth (plural barths)

1. (Britain, dialect) A place of shelter for cattle.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Halliwell to this entry?)

Anagrams

• brath

Welsh

Noun

barth

1. Soft mutation of parth.

Mutation