Coronavirus, Covid 19 Discussion and How It Has Affected Your Daily Life Chat Thread

[Folly's place]

Castration delays the closure of epiphysis in long bones, so the steers grow larger than adults of the same breed. In general, bulls are larger than cows, and oxen get really big, also because they do mature, and aren't on grocery shelves when they are young.
Mary

 

[ShrekDawg]

Castration delays the closure of epiphysis in long bones, so the steers grow larger than adults of the same breed. In general, bulls are larger than cows, and oxen get really big, also because they do mature, and aren't on grocery shelves when they are young.
Mary

Huh, very interesting!! Thanks! Some of those oxen are impressively large! I saw some up close at a fair last year or the year before and was like

 

[ChocolateMouse]

So calling any bovine a cow is like the folks who call any foal a colt. Kinda strange to me, as though any child is a boy, and any human is a man...
Mary

Actually.... *pushes up fake nerd glasses* The etymology of "man" is gender neutral. Originally it was "Werman" (male) "Wifman" (female) and "Man". Eventually "man" became the default for male AND the gender neutral but "woman" was still considered separate from the neutral.

Language is just weird like that.

 

[Folly's place]

Also living languages do change, and right now 'man' sounds like 'man' and not so gender neutral.
Mary

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Agreed, wholeheartedly. I know some gents who would get very defensive if you asked them how many "men" or "guys" they've slept with, despite peoples claims that those are gender neutral! XD
But.... Hence the idea of cow being gender neutral to the majority of the population. Language has just evolved like that. I'm not sure WHY but every time you see a picture in a kids book and it's just gonna be "cow" under the cow picture, not "Cattle" or "Bovine". Therefore all cows are cows.

My guess is there's just not a lot of overlap between people who know the difference between cattle, cow, steer, bull, bovine and people who write books for toddlers and get published and there hasn't been for a long time.

 

[Folly's place]

Hence the problem with 'colt', spoken by folks who should know better. It's a colt or filly, or if already gelded, a gelding.
Like calling all chickens 'roosters'?!
Mary

 

[ShrekDawg]

Hence the problem with 'colt', spoken by folks who should know better. It's a colt or filly, or if already gelded, a gelding.
Like calling all chickens 'roosters'?!
Mary

Or the people that call roosters roosters and hens chickens as if they are a separate species or something it’s like... hello!?!? Chicken is the species not the gender I’ve seen ads like that before. Makes me cringe

 

[MrFluffyandGirls]

Agreed, wholeheartedly. I know some gents who would get very defensive if you asked them how many "men" or "guys" they've slept with, despite peoples claims that those are gender neutral! XD
But.... Hence the idea of cow being gender neutral to the majority of the population. Language has just evolved like that. I'm not sure WHY but every time you see a picture in a kids book and it's just gonna be "cow" under the cow picture, not "Cattle" or "Bovine". Therefore all cows are cows.

My guess is there's just not a lot of overlap between people who know the difference between cattle, cow, steer, bull, bovine and people who write books for toddlers and get published and there hasn't been for a long time.

OK, I'ma have to chime in...Mankind sounds gender neutral and That man over there sounds male to me. But my chiming in has nothing to do with that. Your cow discussion had me thinking of my Asian mother. She went to college later in life and a fellow classmate was showing off his new Asian symbol tattoo so she asked him if he knew what it said. He said, it says Bull, A strong and powerful animal that is my sign. She said she could not help but bust out laughing because it actually said Cow!

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Or the people that call roosters roosters and hens chickens as if they are a separate species or something it’s like... hello!?!? Chicken is the species not the gender I’ve seen ads like that before. Makes me cringe

I've actually seen the opposite! A rooster is just a chicken that roosts, so all of someones chickens are roosters because they all roost! Only broody hens aren't roosters!


At least with colt and filly you have foal as the neutral alternative.

Of course peacocks have it worst of all. :O Aint nobody I know think of peacocks as "peafowl". They just all peacocks, boys or girls. It just seems to go to whichever gender is popularized in print. Cows are all girls, peacocks are all boys.

 

[ShrekDawg]

I've actually seen the opposite! A rooster is just a chicken that roosts, so all of someones chickens are roosters because they all roost! Only broody hens aren't roosters!


At least with colt and filly you have foal as the neutral alternative.

Of course peacocks have it worst of all. :O Aint nobody I know think of peacocks as "peafowl". They just all peacocks, boys or girls. It just seems to go to whichever gender is popularized in print. Cows are all girls, peacocks are all boys.

Oh wow that first one is crazy what!?

And yeah true but I don’t think very many people use foal either

But you are so right! And tbh I didn’t even know it was peafowl till I joined this site and even now I still call them peacocks. I thought that was just what they were called, like the species or whatever, back then lol of course now I know but it’s hard to change