Singular term for cattle

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  • #619208
    👑RebYidd23
    Participant

    None exists. This is an outrage!

    #1215311
    tobs
    Participant

    they should join up with the fish and sheep and protest

    #1215312
    Meno
    Participant

    Cattle have it worse than sheep and fish. There is such a thing as “a fish” or “a sheep”. There’s no such thing as “a cattle”.

    #1215313
    Lightbrite
    Participant

    Ummm hello… Cow and Bull.

    #1215314
    👑RebYidd23
    Participant

    Those don’t count. Neither is a singular term that can be used for any individual of the collective cattle.

    #1215315
    zahavasdad
    Participant

    Bovine

    #1215317
    Lightbrite
    Participant

    Also Motivated Grammar:

    [Update 07/13: Anndra in the comments noted that Scots use the word beast as the genderless singular of cattle. This reminded me that there is a word that is specific to a bovine animal and is genderless and ageless: neat, as in neatfoot oil. Unfortunately, beast is of limited geographical reach, and neat is archaic, although I might try to adopt one or both into my lexicon all the same.]”

    #1215318
    Avram in MD
    Participant

    zahavasdad,

    Bovine

    It works! I think bovine historically is an adjective (of or relating to animals in the bovinae subfamily), but just like the adjectives feline, canine, male, female, etc., bovine has evolved in usage to be a noun as well.

    RebYidd23, we have changed the English language just for you.

    #1215319
    Avram in MD
    Participant

    All animals are beasts!

    #1215320
    benignuman
    Participant

    Bovine doesn’t only refer to cattle. Buffalo, wild oxen, and other animals are also Bovines.

    #1215321
    twisted
    Participant

    The poverty of modern English is not reflected in other languages

    #1215322
    Lightbrite
    Participant

    Maybe if we swapped English with hieroglyphics it would resolve the issues of alternative facts

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