# What's the origin of the words Pork and Beef?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-origin-of-the-words-pork-and-beef/98809>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 18, 2002, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-origin-of-the-words-pork-and-beef/98809 "2002-03-18T01:42:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![EasyPhil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e47c2d/32.png) [@EasyPhil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EasyPhil)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-origin-of-the-words-pork-and-beef/98809/1 "2002-03-18T01:42:25Z")

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Fish is from a fish, chicken from a chicken, but beef is from a cow and pork is from a pig, why is that?

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**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-origin-of-the-words-pork-and-beef/98809/2 "2002-03-18T01:55:30Z")

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From the French boeuf and porc.

After the Norman invasion, French was the language of the court. They used the French word for the animals when serving them as meals. The peasants, who actually raised the animals, used English.

There are other examples, such as venison.

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**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-origin-of-the-words-pork-and-beef/98809/3 "2002-03-18T02:36:37Z")

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**RealityChuck** has already answered the OP, but I’ll take this opportunity to bring up this passage from Ivanhoe. Wamba, a jester, is talking to Gurth the swine-herd:

> [@](#):
>
> “Why, how call you those grunting brutes running about on their four legs?” demanded Wamba.
> 
> “Swine, fool, swine,” said the herd, “every fool knows that.”
> 
> “And swine is good Saxon,” said the Jester; “but how call you the sow when she is flayed, and drawn, and quartered, and hung up by the heels, like a traitor?”
> 
> “Pork,” answered the swine-herd.
> 
> “I am very glad every fool knows that too,” said Wamba, “and pork, I think, is good Norman-French; and so when the brute lives, and is in the charge of a Saxon slave, she goes by her Saxon name; but becomes a Norman, and is called pork, when she is carried to the Castle-hall to feast among the nobles; what dost thou think of this, friend Gurth, ha?”
> 
> “It is but too true doctrine, friend Wamba, however it got into thy fool’s pate.”
> 
> “Nay, I can tell you more,” said Wamba, in the same tone; there is old Alderman Ox continues to hold his Saxon epithet, while he is under the charge of serfs and bondsmen such as thou, but becomes Beef, a fiery French gallant, when he arrives before the worshipful jaws that are destined to consume him. Mynheer Calf, too, becomes Monsieur de Veau in the like manner; he is Saxon when he requires tendance, and takes a Norman name when he becomes matter of enjoyment."

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**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-origin-of-the-words-pork-and-beef/98809/4 "2002-03-18T07:02:47Z")

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Also …

veal (calf meat)  
mutton (sheep meat)  
chevon (goat meat)