heifer

[Laurence Horn]

On Feb 14, 2012, at 10:42 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> It depends on what the meaning of the word "is" is.

True enough; a bit of obfuscation on my part, as usual.
>
> I guess I out-sophisticated myself once again by assuming that
> everybody would regard bulls and cows as subsets of "bovines."

I thought as a true New Yorker, you'd think of them all as basically cows.
>
> This has been known around our house for about twenty years or so as
> "too much education."
>
> Especially since many people presumably don't know what "heifer" means.
>
>
>
An actual query: are _heifer_ and _filly_ the *only* terms that are glossed as 'a female X that has never given birth'?  Maybe there are parallel words for pre-parturitional sheep and pigs; as a true New Yorker, I wouldn't know.  It's odd that we don't seem to have such a word where X = human, especially since we do have words like "primipara".  (I remember my wife's reaction at age 38 when she was referred to at OB-GYN as an "elderly primipara".)

LH

>
> On Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 10:29 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>> Subject:      Re: heifer
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> On Feb 14, 2012, at 7:33 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>
>>> CNN's Soledad O'Brien (mentioned here yesterday for her use of "Na na
>>> na  na  na na") had to explain during a report this morning that "a
>>> heifer, of course, is a female cow."
>>>
>>> A. She *had to tell* CNN viewers what the word "heifer" means.
>>>
>>> B. Her definition was, er, a little off.
>>>
>>> JL
>> Well, if a bull is a male cow…
>>
>> And a heifer is in fact a (female) cow, although not just any (female) cow.  Maybe she should have glossed it as 'a bovine filly'.
>>
>> LH
>>
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>
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