# Non-specific singular term for cattle **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 17, 2008, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-specific-singular-term-for-cattle/468328 "2008-10-17T03:15:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cider\_Depot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Cider\_Depot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cider_Depot)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-specific-singular-term-for-cattle/468328/1 "2008-10-17T03:15:28Z")
I did a search and couldn’t find a thread for this (even though it seems vaguely familiar), so apologies if this has been covered before. We know the variations as cow, bull, steer, calf etc, but each of these is quite specific in meaning. Is there a non-specific singular noun for a unit of cattle, other than a “head of cattle”? One that doesn’t carry extra meaning of gender, age, virginity, testicular status? ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-specific-singular-term-for-cattle/468328/2 "2008-10-17T03:23:41Z")
[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=368033&highlight=cattlebeast](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=368033&highlight=cattlebeast) ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-specific-singular-term-for-cattle/468328/3 "2008-10-17T03:24:59Z")
My favorite proposed term is [land whale](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/681/do-mcdonalds-milkshakes-contain-seaweed). ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-specific-singular-term-for-cattle/468328/4 "2008-10-17T03:25:44Z")
Bovine? Hamburger? ---
**Author:** ![Cider\_Depot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Cider\_Depot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cider_Depot)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-specific-singular-term-for-cattle/468328/5 "2008-10-17T03:47:50Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=368033&highlight=cattlebeast](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=368033&highlight=cattlebeast) Ah. Thanks. So the choices are **cow** or **beef** … or possibly Land Whale. There’s no real consensus across the bovine product industry. Might I humbly suggest _meat monster_? ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-specific-singular-term-for-cattle/468328/6 "2008-10-17T03:59:55Z")
I still think most educated people don’t blink at “kine”, although ranchers no longer use it. (One of those threads taught me one of my favorite plurals, beeves!) ---
**Author:** ![dynamitedave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ed655f/32.png) [@dynamitedave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dynamitedave)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-specific-singular-term-for-cattle/468328/7 "2008-10-17T07:43:47Z")
As in the linked thread, beast. Dad would, say, ring the butcher to book in our freezer beast (a juicy 18 month heifer) for slaughter and packaging. On reflection though, perhaps beast was only used for cattle ready for slaughter. I’ll need to confirm that. As cattle are a herd animal, we very rarely had one “cattle” on it’s own. It would go crazy , running around, or jumping fences. So there would be a minimum of 3 together. Which was a bit tough for the other 2 watching the tasty heifer get one in the head. But man, tasty meat wins out. Dairy cows were a bit better, but they didn’t like being away from their mates either. That’s all a bit off track, but what I’m trying to say is that we rarely had one cow/steer/bull/calf on it’s own, so rarely needed a “singular” description. The times we did, we refered to it’s proper name. I’d say to Dad that a steer is sick, or he’d say the cow has calved. That sort of thing. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-specific-singular-term-for-cattle/468328/8 "2008-10-17T09:05:02Z")
I’m not from rural Australia, but work with people who are. They would only say “cow” if they were meaning to make specific reference to sex. Otherwise, an undistinguished bovine is invariably a “beast”.