▲ 21 r/asklinguistics
When talking about the edible meat of an animal, why do we sometimes have a different word for that, but other times we just say the animal?
I eat “chicken” and “turkey” but I don’t eat “cow” or “pig” - I would say “beef” or “pork” instead. Why? I guess there’s the word “poultry”, but that seems to mostly be used in regards to the industry on a macro scale, not necessarily the specific thing that you eat - similar to the use of “narcotics” vs. “drugs”. Oddly enough, this convention seems to have stopped completely short of seafood.
Another seemingly related example would be fruits. There’s “oranges” and “blueberries”, but also “strawberries” and “bananas”.
u/Icy-Bet-3983 — 3 days ago