Etymologically
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livestock

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 22 October 2026 at 21:07. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈlaɪvstɒk/[1]
  • US: /ˈlaɪvstɑk/[1]

Etymology

It is a compound from English live + stock,[2][3] with stock in its sense of the movable property of a farm, especially its animals.[3] The farm's implements were sometimes called “dead stock”.[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Domestic animals kept on a farm for use or profit, before 1687, in William Petty's Political Anatomy of Ireland.[2][5] The sources disagree on the first date: Etymonline gives the 1520s,[3] Dictionary.com 1650–60[6] and Merriam-Webster 1742.[4]

Semantic evolution

From 1755 it was also applied to people, especially enslaved people, treated as property.[2][5] Humorously, livestock meant fleas, lice and other parasites living on the body; the OED records this from 1774,[2] and Grose's slang dictionary listed it in 1785.[7][3] That sense is now rare.[2]

Timeline

  • a1687 – farm animals (OED); Etymonline dates this to the 1520s.[2][3]
  • 1755 – of people, especially enslaved people.[2]
  • 1774 – fleas and lice, humorously.[2]
  • 1785 – in Grose's slang dictionary.[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. Domestic animals such as cattle, sheep and pigs, raised on a farm for food or profit.
  2. (humorous, now rare) Fleas, lice or other parasites on a person.

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  7. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com