beef: [13] Like mutton, pork, and veal, beef was introduced by the Normans to provide a dainty alternative to the bare animal names ox, cow, etc when referring to their meat. Anglo-Norman and Old French boef or buef (which of course became modern French boeuf) came from Latin bov-, the stem of bōs ‘ox’, from which English gets bovine [19] and Bovril [19]. Bōs itself is actually related etymologically to cow. The compound beefeater ‘yeoman warder of the Tower of London’ was coined in the 17th century; it was originally a contemptuous term for a ‘well-fed servant’. => bovine, cow
beef (n.)
c. 1300, from Old French buef "ox; beef; ox hide" (11c., Modern French boeuf), from Latin bovem (nominative bos, genitive bovis) "ox, cow," from PIE root *gwou- "cow, ox, bull" (see cow (n.)). Original plural was beeves.
beef (v.)
"to complain," slang, 1888, American English, from noun meaning "complaint" (1880s). The noun meaning "argument" is recorded from 1930s. The origin and signification are unclear; perhaps it traces to the common late 19c. complaint of U.S. soldiers about the quantity or quality of beef rations.
雙語例句
1. They used to buy ten kilos of beef in one lump.
他們過去常買10公斤重的整塊牛肉。
來自柯林斯例句
2. A tantalising aroma of roast beef fills the air.
空氣中充滿誘人的烤牛肉香味。
來自柯林斯例句
3. Beef now costs well over 30 roubles a pound.
牛肉現(xiàn)在賣到了每磅30多盧布。
來自柯林斯例句
4. They bought so much beef that some went bad.
他們買了太多牛肉，有些都變質(zhì)了。
來自柯林斯例句
5. Some of the commercially produced venison resembles beef in flavour.