Idiom question

[Beverly Flanigan]

At 03:40 PM 1/21/00 -0800, you wrote:
>"Peter A. McGraw" wrote:
> >
> > --On Fri, Jan 21, 2000 2:44 PM -0800 "A. Vine" <avine at ENG.SUN.COM> wrote:
> >
> > > Beverly Flanigan wrote:
> > >>
> > >>   The basic problem in this country, of course,
> > >> is that non-rural people no longer know the difference between cows,
> > >> heifers, bulls, and steers!
> > >
> > > I don't think that is the "problem".  The term "cow" is the generic term
> > > for the animal, regardless of sexual status.  If you say "heifer", you're
> > > only talking about a female cow.  If you say "bull" or "steer", you're
> > > only talking about a male cow (with a difference in sterility).  But if
> > > you say "cow", you're not specifying the sex.
> > >
> >
> > Maybe you're not, Andrea, but I certainly am!  I would never call a bull or
> > a steer a "cow," and I would be secretly amused to hear anyone actually use
> > the phrase "male cow."  For me, the only word available to encompass both
> > bull and cow is "bovine," or the collective "cattle."  I might pass a
> > pasture and say, "Look at the cows," not paying attention to whether there
> > were also a couple of bulls or steers there.  But if I did pay attention, I
> > would probably add something like, "Oh, there's a bull [or a couple of
> > steers], too."  A cow is already marked as female; a heifer is further
> > marked as young and female.
> >
> > Peter
>
>So, your generic term for the animal is "bovine"?  If you were trying to talk
>about the animal in generic terms, where it made no sense to use the
>plural/collective "cattle", you would always use "bovine"?  And you wouldn't
>feel like you sounded pretentious?
>
>Anyway, my point is not that urban folk don't know the difference between
>a cow,
>heifer, bull, and steer.  It's that there is no need for a distinction
>when they
>use "cow".  And "bovine" sounds scientific, over-educated, or
>affected.  "Look,
>there's a computer box with a bovine print!"  "I have a cream pitcher in the
>shape of a bovine." "What sound does a bovine make?"
>
>Andrea

Enough already!  But I will add that most prints one sees are in fact of a
cow, not a bull or a steer.  Those of us "in the know" don't need to see
the whole animal to tell the difference (though urban folk might--or would
they know even then?); we can see maleness or femaleness in the face and
horns.  The Gateway Holstein _cow_ is a lovely (and nostalgia-stirring)
example of this.