“牛”是cow，“肉”是meat，為什么“牛肉”不是cow meat?

肉叫做meat

那cow的肉

為什么就不可以像漢語(yǔ)這樣直接叫：

牛肉

?cow+ meat

而需要一個(gè)新的詞：

beef

這不多此一舉嗎，

英語(yǔ)就不能了解一下我們背單詞的辛苦嗎?

同理豬肉，羊肉為什么不叫：

pig meat，sheep meat

而都用到了另外的單詞 pork和mutton?

為什么“牛肉”不是cow meat而是beef?

Yet it seems something got lost in translation between leaving the farm and ending up on our dinner plates.

似乎動(dòng)物們?cè)陔x開(kāi)農(nóng)場(chǎng)和最終出現(xiàn)在我們的餐盤之間的那一段時(shí)間翻譯好像丟了。

Pig became pork, cow became beef and sheep became mutton.

豬肉成了pork，牛肉成了beef，羊肉成了mutton。

Do we call these animals by different names when we eating them to disconnect from the fact that that cute pig you saw the petting zoo is going to be tomorrow's dinner or is there a bit more history to it than that.

當(dāng)我們吃這些動(dòng)物的時(shí)候，我們是不是用不同的名字來(lái)稱呼它們，就能讓他們與我們往日看到的可愛(ài)形象相區(qū)分，還是說(shuō)這其中有更多的歷史?

In 1066 the Danish King of England, Edward the Confessor, died leaving to Harold Godwinson, Earl of Wessex, being crowned king and becoming King Harold II.

1066年，英格蘭國(guó)王愛(ài)德華懺悔者去世，王位留給哈羅德·戈德溫森，威塞克斯伯爵。他加冕為國(guó)王，成為國(guó)王哈羅德二世。

Yet things didn't go easily for him, his first issue came from the north, thanks to Harald Hardrada, king of Norway invading Yorkshire.

然而事情并沒(méi)有只是當(dāng)國(guó)王那么簡(jiǎn)單，他的第一個(gè)問(wèn)題來(lái)自北方，這一切都是由于挪威國(guó)王哈拉爾德·哈德拉達(dá)入侵約克郡。

While Harold II successfully defeated the Norwegian fleet, William of Normandy, arrived in Sussex in the South of England

當(dāng)哈羅德二世成功擊退挪威艦隊(duì)時(shí)，諾曼底的威廉抵達(dá)英格蘭南部的蘇塞克斯。

What Harold was in the north meaning Harold had to rush back down south to take on the French adversary.

而哈羅德還在北方，意味著哈羅德必須急忙趕回南方再去對(duì)付法國(guó)

This cumulated in the Battle of Hastings were Harold II, the king of England, was defeated by the French army supposedly with an arrow to the eye leading to William of Normandy becoming King of England and becoming known as William the Conqueror.

在黑斯廷斯戰(zhàn)役中，英國(guó)國(guó)王哈羅德二世，被法國(guó)軍隊(duì)擊敗，據(jù)說(shuō)是被一箭射中眼睛，導(dǎo)致諾曼底的威廉成為英格蘭國(guó)王，史稱征服者威廉

Now I know what you're wondering what has any of this got to do with animals or food.

現(xiàn)在我知道你在想什么，這些和動(dòng)物或食物的說(shuō)法又有什么關(guān)系?

Well, we have this piece of English history to thank for the variation names between animals when they're alive and when they're being eaten.

這么說(shuō)吧，多虧了這段英國(guó)歷史，動(dòng)物活著的時(shí)候和被吃掉的時(shí)候才有了不同的名字

The Norman invasion of England has had a longer lasting effect on the English language，

諾曼人入侵英格蘭對(duì)英語(yǔ)產(chǎn)生了更持久的影響

especially with the division of language in the French upper classes and the anglo-saxon working classes of the time

尤其是當(dāng)時(shí)法國(guó)上層階級(jí)和盎格魯-撒克遜工人階級(jí)的語(yǔ)言分化

It would be this anglo-saxon working class sort of farm and hunt the food keeping the English names of the animals they already knew like cow, pig and sheep

盎格魯-撒克遜工人階級(jí)耕種并捕獵，所以他們保留了他們經(jīng)常使用的動(dòng)物的英文名字，如牛，豬和羊

while the French upper classes who only ever saw the animals cooked would use the French names they already knew.

而只見(jiàn)過(guò)被烹飪后的動(dòng)物的法國(guó)上流社會(huì)則使用他們的法語(yǔ)叫法

This meant that cooked pig took on the French name for them porc, which is of course anglicized the pork.

這就意味著煮熟的豬用了法語(yǔ)名字porc， 英國(guó)化之后成pork

The French boeuf was anglicized to beef to replace cattle，

法語(yǔ)boeuf被英國(guó)化為beef來(lái)代替牛

and mutton comes from the French word for sheep mouton.

mutton來(lái)自法國(guó)對(duì)羊的叫法mouton。

Chicken meat is still just known as chicken and duck meat is just known as duck.

雞肉仍然被叫作chicken，鴨肉仍然被叫作duck

There seems to be no real answer why chicken and duck meat is still just called chicken and duck.

雞鴨肉究竟為什么還被叫作chicken和duck，似乎還沒(méi)有真正的答案。

Poulet it's French for chicken which is where poultry comes from

Poulet是法語(yǔ)，意思是雞肉，家禽poultry這個(gè)單詞就是從這里來(lái)的。

and was anglicized to pullet which is now just used to refer to a young hen.

后來(lái)被英語(yǔ)化成了pullet，現(xiàn)在用來(lái)指年輕的母雞

Horse meat is a rather controversial meat. Due to the fact that for so long horses have played such a large role as companions to humans, some cultures are hesitant eat them especially in english-speaking countries.

馬肉是一種頗有爭(zhēng)議的肉，因?yàn)檫@么長(zhǎng)時(shí)間以來(lái)，馬一直扮演著人類重要的伙伴角色，一些文化對(duì)吃馬肉很猶豫，尤其是在英語(yǔ)國(guó)家。

In France horse meat is just called cheval meat. Cheval being the French name for horses when they are alive, too.

在法國(guó)，馬肉被稱為cheval meat。Cheval也是馬活著時(shí)的法語(yǔ)名字。

But due to horse meat not coming across the channel with William the conquerer it didn't get a name divided like pig and pork.

但是由于馬肉沒(méi)有隨征服者威廉穿越海峽而來(lái)，所以馬肉沒(méi)有像豬和豬肉那樣被分開(kāi)命名。

So what about fish? Fish is much like poultry and horses in the fact that they haven't got a separate name for when they're eaten and even specific species of fish don't have food names.

那魚(yú)呢?魚(yú)很像家禽和馬，事實(shí)上它們被吃的時(shí)候沒(méi)有單獨(dú)的名字，甚至特定種類的魚(yú)也沒(méi)有食物名稱。

This is for to do the French word for fish being of poisson which is very similar to the English word poison,

這是因?yàn)榉ㄕZ(yǔ)中表示魚(yú)的詞poisson，這個(gè)詞與英語(yǔ)中的“毒藥”非常相似，

so perhaps people were turned off eating something that sounded similar to poison.

所以也許是人們拒絕吃聽(tīng)起來(lái)像毒藥的東西。

So next time you re eating a beef burger just remember you re calling that a beef burger and not a cattle burger due to an invasion and a class divide that happened almost 1,000 years ago.

因此，下次您要吃牛肉漢堡時(shí)，請(qǐng)記住，您所說(shuō)的是beef漢堡，而不是cattle漢堡，這與一段入侵和近1000年前發(fā)生的階級(jí)分化的歷史有關(guān)。

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