Re: Epicene words

On 28 Feb 2005, at 5.13 am, caeruleancentaur wrote:

> On 27 Feb 2005, at 5.10 am, Steg Belsky wrote:
>
>>> And "cow" is the opposite - commonly used as the epicene term for
>>> _cow/bull_, but also only the female.
>
> Tristan McLeay <conlang@T...> wrote:
>
>> Not quite; 'cow' is used as the epicene term for cattle. A female
>> whale is a cow and a male one's a bull, but whale's aren't cows.
>> (Anyone know how that one came about?)
>
> I don't agree.  "Cow" IS the epicene word for the genus Bos.  I can
> say "There sure are a lot of cows in that pasture," even if there is
> a sprinkling of bulls and steers among them.  I don't HAVE to use the
> word "cattle."  It is not, however, the epicene word for other
> species, but designates only the female whale, camel, eland, manatee,
> etc.  I have never heard an refer to a "pod of cows."
Until here, I agree with you, and that's all I said. ("'Cow' is used as
the epicene term for cattle" and not for 'cow/bull', which'd imply that
any species with the male called Cow and the female called Bull could
be called Cows.)

> When "cow" is
> used for species other than Bos, the species name must be used in
> conjunction with it, e.g., cow whales.
I disagree; once the context is set up, you don't need to use the
species name. 'Whales are sea mammals. The cows are _____.'

> "Cow" used be itself is
> automatically assumed to refer to the Bos genus, unless there is a
> context that says otherwise.
I agree once again, and never said anything to contradict this.

> It is similar in this respect to the word "hen."  A flock of hens
> means (at least to me) a flock of female chickens.  One must specify
> hen sparrows or hen pigeons or whatever.
I always thought chickens *were* females, and that it was much the same
as cows in that respect. (The only species other than chooks/chickens
for which I use 'hen' though is the peacock (male+epicene) and the
peahen (female), and with the word 'chook' so conveniently in my
lexicon I almost never use the word 'hen' to mean 'chook'.)

> It is interesting that the word "cattle" is cognate to "capital."
> The word originally meant personal property or any livestock.
That is interesting, and I suppose goes some way to explaining the
grammar of 'cattle'.

--
Tristan.

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