Quote:
Originally Posted by RickyMaveety
Thus, while the word for the meat is French or French based (mutton or beef), the word for the animal is usually German based (as with sheep).
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That's actually a clue as to which class ate what. In English, if the upper classes ate an animal then the food has a different name than the animal it came from, but animals which the lower classes ate are called the same thing alive or cooked. The modern English food names are derived from the French terms for the things eaten by the francophone gentry.
ie:
- pig -- ham/pork
- cow -- beef
- deer -- venison
- sheep -- mutton
versus:
- chicken
- rabbit
- duck
- fish
- turkey
I've always found this sort of thing fascinating.
