Thought of the day - food related

[PDIGIO_6x3]

Reminded me of this:

Priceless!

 

[Hamish Racing]

And this one is fun

Or should it be in the funny words section

 

[waltesefalcon]

English evolved in a weird way over the course of its history. The native languages of the British isles are all Celtic. In 43AD Latin came with the Romans and influenced the language. After Rome left the Britain, the islands underwent a series of invasions from the 5th century until the Norman conquest in 1066. These invasions brought the Angles and the Saxons to Britain and they brought their languages, which is where we get Old English (which today is most similar to Danish as a spoken language).

Then in 1066 William the Bastard got to change his moniker to William the Conqueror when he defeated King Harold Godwinson at Hastings. This conquest brought Norman French to Britain and is why we have dual words for some animals, e.g. why we call cattle 'cow' when it is in the field and 'beef' when it is on the table, 'cow' is the Old English word and 'beouf' is the Norman French word for cow, the Normans banqueted but the English tended the herds. The confluence of these languages gives us Middle English. Which doesn't sound like modern English but when you hear it you can pick up about half the meaning without further study.

During the Renaissance the explosion of learning brought classical Greek and Latin influences to the language and this led to the emergence of Elizabethan English. From there to where we are today you have a lot of influences from Britain's colonial history which helped develop the language further. And now we have modern English which has a ton of odd quirks due to its complicated past and the cornucopia of influences that come with that past.

 

[PDIGIO_6x3]

Was “cow” assumed for both sexes of the bovine at the time? I only understood it as the female of the animal.

 

[mikephillips]

English evolved in a weird way over the course of its history. The native languages of the British isles are all Celtic. In 43AD Latin came with the Romans and influenced the language. After Rome left the Britain, the islands underwent a series of invasions from the 5th century until the Norman conquest in 1066. These invasions brought the Angles and the Saxons to Britain and they brought their languages, which is where we get Old English (which today is most similar to Danish as a spoken language).

Then in 1066 William the Bastard got to change his moniker to William the Conqueror when he defeated King Harold Godwinson at Hastings. This conquest brought Norman French to Britain and is why we have dual words for some animals, e.g. why we call cattle 'cow' when it is in the field and 'beef' when it is on the table, 'cow' is the Old English word and 'beouf' is the Norman French word for cow, the Normans banqueted but the English tended the herds. The confluence of these languages gives us Middle English. Which doesn't sound like modern English but when you hear it you can pick up about half the meaning without further study.

During the Renaissance the explosion of learning brought classical Greek and Latin influences to the language and this led to the emergence of Elizabethan English. From there to where we are today you have a lot of influences from Britain's colonial history which helped develop the language further. And now we have modern English which has a ton of odd quirks due to its complicated past and the cornucopia of influences that come with that past.

The Davidson side of the family has roots back to the Norman Conquest. Supposed to have one who was married to a daughter of William. One brother did one of those DNA tests that showed part of ours does go back to Norman France so there's evidence it may indeed be true.

 

[waltesefalcon]

Was “cow” assumed for both sexes of the bovine at the time? I only understood it as the female of the animal.

I simply used cow as a generic word for bovine. Cow and bull were already in use and both come from Old English. In Old English cow is 'cu' and bull is 'bula.'