When I eat chicken, I call it chicken. Chicken wing; chicken drumsticks etc.
When I eat lamb, I call it lamb. Lamb shank; lamb cutlets.
So why do I not eat pig or cow? I eat pork or beef. Is there a reason for that?
When I eat chicken, I call it chicken. Chicken wing; chicken drumsticks etc.
When I eat lamb, I call it lamb. Lamb shank; lamb cutlets.
So why do I not eat pig or cow? I eat pork or beef. Is there a reason for that?
Beef only refers to cow and pork only refers to pig, but poultry encompasses many species of fowl, and I think that the need for distinction is what led to people generally referring to poultry by the species. If you tell someone you’re having poultry for dinner the follow-up is usually ‘what kind?’, and if beef referred to the meat of any large domestic quadriped mammal and bison were more popular, we’d probably refer to it as ‘cow’, that kind of thing.