「牛」是cow,「肉」是meat,為什麼「牛肉」不是cow meat?

牛叫做cow，肉叫做meat，那cow的肉，為什麼不可以像漢語這樣直接叫：牛肉，cow+ meat，而需要一個新的詞：beef？這不是脫了褲子放屁，多此一舉嗎？

放著現成的cow meat不用，偏偏另造出beef這個詞的人，腦子秀逗了嗎？難道就不能理解一下我們背單詞的辛苦嗎?

同理，豬肉為什麼不叫：pig meat，而叫pork？羊肉為什麼不叫sheep meat，而叫mutton？這究竟是為什麼呢？

下面這篇文章，或許可以告訴你答案！

Yet it seems something got lost in translation between leaving the farm and ending up on our dinner plates.

似乎動物們在離開農場和最終出現在我們的餐盤之間的那一段時間翻譯好像丟了。

Pig became pork, cow became beef and sheep became mutton.

豬肉成了pork，牛肉成了beef，羊肉成了mutton。

Do we call these animals by different names when we eating them to disconnect from the fact that that cute pig you saw the petting zoo is going to be tomorrow's dinner or is there a bit more history to it than that.

當我們吃這些動物的時候，我們是不是用不同的名字來稱呼它們，就能讓他們與我們往日看到的可愛形象相區分，還是說這其中有更多的歷史?

In 1066 the King of England, Edward the Confessor, died leaving to Harold Godwinson, Earl of Wessex, being crowned king and becoming King Harold II.

1066年，英格蘭國王愛德華懺悔者去世，王位留給哈羅德·戈德溫森，威塞克斯伯爵，他加冕為國王，成為國王哈羅德二世。

Yet things didn't go easily for him, his first issue came from the north, thanks to Harald Hardrada, king of Norway invading Yorkshire.

然而事情並沒有只是當國王那麼簡單，他的第一個問題來自北方，這一切都是由於挪威國王哈拉爾德·哈德拉達入侵約克郡。

While Harold II successfully defeated the Norwegian fleet, William of Normandy, arrived in Sussex in the South of England

當哈羅德二世成功擊退挪威艦隊時，諾曼第的威廉抵達英格蘭南部的蘇塞克斯。

What Harold was in the north meaning Harold had to rush back down south to take on the French adversary.

而哈羅德還在北方，意味著哈羅德必須急忙趕回南方再去對付法國

This cumulated in the Battle of Hastings were Harold II, the king of England, was defeated by the French army supposedly with an arrow to the eye leading to William of Normandy becoming King of England and becoming known as William the Conqueror.

在黑斯廷斯戰役中，英國國王哈羅德二世，被法國軍隊擊敗據說是被一箭射中眼睛，導致諾曼第的威廉成為英格蘭國王並被稱為徵服者威廉

Now I know what you're wondering what has any of this got to do with animals or food.

現在我知道你在想什麼，這些和動物或食物的說法又有什麼關係？

Well, we have this piece of English history to thank for the variation names between animals when they're alive and when they're being eaten.

這麼說吧，多虧了這段英國歷史，動物活著的時候和被吃掉的時候才有了不同的名字

The Norman invasion of England has had a longer lasting effect on the English language，

諾曼人入侵英格蘭對英語產生了更持久的影響

especially with the division of language in the French upper classes and the anglo-saxon working classes of the time

尤其是當時法國上層階級和盎格魯-撒克遜工人階級的語言分化

It would be this anglo-saxon working class sort of farm and hunt the food keeping the English names of the animals they already knew like cow pig and sheep

盎格魯-撒克遜工人階級耕種並捕獵，所以他們保留了他們經常使用的動物的英文名字，如牛，豬和羊

while the French upper classes who only ever saw the animals cooked would use the French names they already knew.

而只見過被烹飪後的動物的法國上流社會則使用他們的法語叫法

This meant that cooked pig took on the French name for themporc, which is of course anglicized the pork.

這就意味著煮熟的豬用了法語名字porc， 英國化之後成pork

The Frenchboeufwas anglicized to beef to replace cattle，

法語boeuf被英國化為beef來代替牛

and mutton comes from the French word for sheepmouton.

mutton來自法國對羊的叫法mouton。

Chicken meat is still just known as chicken and duck meat is just known as duck.

雞肉仍然被叫作chicken，鴨肉仍然被叫作duck

There seems to be no real answer what chicken and duck meat is still just called chicken and duck.

雞鴨肉究竟為什麼還被叫作chicken和duck，似乎還沒有真正的答案。

Pouletit's French for chicken which is where poultry comes from

Poulet是法語，意思是雞肉，家禽poultry這個單詞就是從這裡來的。

and was anglicized to pullet which is now just used to refer to a young hen.

後來被英語化成了pullet，現在用來指年輕的母雞

Horse meat is a rather controversial meat due to the fact that for so long horses have played such a large role as companions to humans, some cultures are hesitant eat them especially in english-speaking countries.

馬肉是一種頗有爭議的肉，因為這麼長時間以來，馬一直扮演著人類重要的夥伴角色，一些文化對吃馬肉很猶豫，尤其是在英語國家。

In France horse meat is just calledchevalmeat.Chevalbeing the French name for horses when they are alive, too.

在法國，馬肉被稱為cheval。Cheval也是馬活著時的法語名字。

But due to horse meat not coming across the channel with William the conquerer it didn't get a name divided like pig and pork.

但是由於馬肉沒有隨徵服者威廉穿越海峽而來，所以馬肉沒有像豬和豬肉那樣被分開命名。

So what about fish? Fish is much like poultry and horses in the fact that they haven't got a separate name for when they're eaten and even specific species of fish don't have food names.

那魚呢？魚很像家禽和馬，事實上它們被吃的時候沒有單獨的名字，甚至特定種類的魚也沒有食物名稱。

This is for to do the French word for fish being ofpoissonon which is very similar to the English word poison,

這是因為法語中表示魚的詞poisson，這個詞與英語中的「毒藥」非常相似，

so perhaps people were turned off eating something that sounded similar to poison.

所以也許是人們拒絕吃聽起來像毒藥的東西。

So next time you're eating a beef burger just remember you're calling that a beef burger and not a cattle burger due to an invasion and a class divide that happened almost 1,000 years ago.

因此，下次您要吃牛肉漢堡時，請記住，您所說的是beef漢堡，而不是cattle漢堡，這與一段入侵和近1000年前發生的階級分化的歷史有關。

文/王樹振

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