cattle

English Online Dictionary. What means cattle‎? What does cattle mean?

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 capitāle, from Latin capitālis (“of the head”) (whence also capital, from caput (“head”) + -alis (“-al”)). For the sense evolution, compare pecuniary and fee. Also compare Russian поголо́вье (pogolóvʹje, “total number of livestock”) from Russian голова́ (golová, “head”). Doublet of capital and chattel.

Pronunciation

• enPR: kăt'l, IPA^(key): /ˈkætəl/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): [ˈkʰæt(ə)ɫ]
• (US) IPA^(key): [ˈkʰæɾ(ə)ɫ]
• Hyphenation: cat‧tle
• Rhymes: -ætəl

Noun

cattle pl (normally plural, singular cattle)

2. Domesticated animals of the species Bos taurus (cows, bulls, steers, oxen etc).

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

   goods and cattle
6. (uncountable, rare) Used in restricted contexts to refer to the meat derived from cattle.
   • 2005 June 25, "Serge" (username), "Re: WOW!!!! WHALE BURGERS...... McDonalds^[sic] 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.
• A: How many cattle do you have ? B: I have fifteen 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. When a precise formal term is required, constructions such as "domestic bovine" or "domestic bovine animal" can be used. For many people, only sex-specific 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 sex 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 sex. 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, kine
• (people who resemble domesticated bovine animals in behavior or destiny): sheeple (pejorative)

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

Verb

cattle (third-person singular simple present cattles, present participle cattling, simple past and past participle cattled)

1. (transitive, Cockney rhyming slang) Ellipsis of cattle truck (“to fuck: to break, destroy”).

Related terms

Anagrams

• Catlet, catlet, cattel, tectal