FYI - Why some meats are called as their animal name and others are not?

This is a great question — and it actually has an interesting historical and linguistic background.

The main reason some meats are called by a different name than the animal (like cow → beef or pig → pork) while others aren’t (like chicken → chicken) goes back to the Norman Conquest of England in 1066.

The Norman Influence

When the Normans (from what is now France) conquered England, they brought their French language with them. The ruling class and nobility spoke French, while the common people — mostly Anglo-Saxons — continued speaking Old English.

• The farmers who raised the animals spoke Old English.

• The nobles who ate the prepared meat spoke French.

As a result, two sets of words developed:

• Animal names stayed Old English:

  • Cow, pig, sheep, deer

• Meat names came from French:

  • Beef (from boeuf)

  • Pork (from porc)

  • Mutton (from mouton)

  • Venison (from venaison)

So when a peasant talked about caring for the animals, they used their English words, but when nobles talked about eating them, they used the French-derived terms — and over time, those distinctions stuck.

Why Not Chicken?

There wasn’t a French equivalent that replaced “chicken” or “fish” in everyday English. Poultry and seafood were eaten by all classes, and the words for them came directly from the animals themselves. Thus:

• Chicken = chicken (Old English cicen)

• Fish = fish (Old English fisc)

Summary

Animal (Old English)	Meat (French influence)
Cow	Beef (boeuf)
Pig	Pork (porc)
Sheep	Mutton (mouton)
Deer	Venison (venaison)
Chicken	Chicken
Fish	Fish

In short: class, language, and history shaped how we name meats today.

Source: Some or all of the content was generated using an AI language model