Beef
/biːf/noun
The meat of cattle used as food, or a cow or bull raised for that meat.
Did you know?English split the animal and the meat in a very old social divide: the living cow stayed Anglo-Saxon, while the food term came in through Norman French after the Conquest.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*gʷōus
“cow, ox”
Old English
OE
bēof
“cattle, ox, beef”
Old French
OF
boef
“ox, beef”
Middle English
ME
beef
“flesh of cattle as food”
Modern English
English
beef
“meat from cattle; also, informal complaint or quarrel”