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beef

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /biːf/[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English bef, borrowed from Anglo-Norman boef, borrowed from Old French buef (“ox; beef”) (modern French bœuf),[2][3][4] from Latin bovem, accusative of bōs (“ox, cow”),[2][4][5] itself an Umbrian dialect form in Latin,[2] from PIE Proto-Indo-European *gʷṓws (“ox, bull, cow”).[2][4] It is cognate with Ancient Greek βοῦς (boûs, “ox”) and Old Irish bó (“cow”), and so ultimately with native English cow.[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The flesh of an ox, bull or cow used as food: before 1300 in the OED,[7] probably before 1300 in Kyng Alisaunder in Barnhart.[2] The animal itself is from about 1300, with the old plural beeves.[4][7]

Semantic evolution

Word Origins notes that after the Norman Conquest French words were often used for the meat and English words for the animal (beef against cow and ox), but the division is less clear-cut than is claimed, since beef has also been used for the live animal from Middle English to the present.[8] Beef of other kinds of flesh is from 1661,[7] and human flesh, strength or muscular power from 1851;[7] beef to the heels, massive, brawny, is from 1867.[7] Cattle collectively is American from about 1706.[7] The noun meaning a complaint is from the 1880s, the verb, to complain, from 1888 in American English,[4][7][8] perhaps from soldiers' complaints about the quantity or quality of their beef rations;[4] an argument or quarrel is from the 1930s.[4] To beef up, strengthen, is a later American use.[9][6] The beefeater was at first an eater of beef, then a Yeoman of the Guard (17th century).[3]

Timeline

  • before 1300 – the meat of an ox.[7][2]
  • c. 1300 – the animal itself.[4]
  • 17th century – beefeater.[3]
  • 1851 – human muscle, strength.[7]
  • 1888 – to complain.[4]
  • 1930s – an argument.[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The flesh of a full-grown steer, bull, ox or cow, used as food.
  2. (plural beeves) A full-grown animal of the cattle kind, raised for meat.
  3. (informal) Human muscle; brawn.
  4. (slang) A complaint or grievance; a quarrel.

Verb

  1. (slang) To complain.
  2. (beef up) To strengthen or reinforce.

Word family

  • beefless
  • beefalo
  • beefburger
  • beefcake
  • beefeater
  • beefsteak
  • beefy

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press