Re: Different words for one thing

Axiem wrote:
> From Spanish? Well, I know that French has different ones for
> chicken..poulet and I can't remember the other one...then there's
> pork/pig beef/cow KFC/chicken in English...languages apparently
> distinguish between living and dead
Actually, most languages don't.  Spanish, for instance, for most foods,
just uses "carne de" (meat of), IIRC.  In English, the food is borrowed
from Norman French, while the animal are native.  Apparently, the
Anglo-Saxon farmers continued to use their words when they raised them,
but when the Norman chefs cooked them, they used the French words.  Old
English didn't distinguish between food and living animals.

Actually, at least some words, "beef", for one, used to be used for
living animals at times.

And, of course, most foods use the same word in English, chicken, fish
(and kinds of fish), turkey, and all plants.

> Oh yeah, and there's an Eskimo language with
> like, 14 or 15 words for snow, depending on it's consistancy, what
> animal it's on, what time of day it fell, etc..
Actually, only four, with meanings "snow on the ground", "falling snow",
"drifting snow", and "snow drift".

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