Re: Word connections - malaise and sit

--- Andreas Johansson <and_yo@...>
> wrote:
>Nathan Roy wrote:
>[snip]>
>>similar to how pork, mutton, venison and beef are more sophisticated terms
>>than pig, sheep, deer and cow.
>
>More sophisticated? I thought the only difference was that the first set
>refered to the animals as food, and the second to 'em in any other situation
>(bar highly scientific ones where they'll be refered to by systematic latin
>names) ...
The reason the Latin-derived names (pork, mutton, venison, beef) are used for the
food while the Germanic names are used for the animals is to do with which
people came in contact with the animals - Old English-speaking peasants - and
which people came in contact with the food made from them - Old French-speaking
aristocracy. Peasants rarely ate meat because the aristocracy claimed most of
what they prouced. (I think I'm right on this - can any historians back me up?)

==

   Tom Pullman

"Dochuala as borb nad légha."

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