Today I noted that the "Did you know...?" was "Castrating a deer results in nothing more than a castrated deer."

Which made me wonder about special names for castrated animals. For starters...

Human = eunuch

Horse = geldings

Please add to the list. Thank you.

Bull = Steer. Occaisonally Bullock.

Rooster = Capon.

Ram = Wether.

Horse changes into: gelding.

In german: Wallach.

And my compliments to one of

my favourite actors:

Eli Wallach.

The Tuco out of Segio Leone's

"The good, the bad and the ugly".

Hey Andrew! If you really go through

with this project, you will have

to write a rather fat dictionary!

jeo

This complete but chastity - enforced pig aspires to be a barrow - castrated hog.

A castrated goat is also a wether.

A castrated Bull is also an Ox!

LOL

I'm not sure this will require a large dictionary, unless it's multi-lingual.

From what I can see, I think we already have about 90% of the names listed. I'd be very surprised if 10 more show up.

IEunuch.

It's interesting that the more important the animal is for humans, the more words there are for it in relation to age and sex. (This probably gets filed in the same place as the standard observation that "the Eskimo have 200 words for snow." They don't really; they only have about 30, but the idea is the same.)

Wild animals of importance usually have terms for the species in general, males, females (sometimes the same as the species name), and the young:

Deer = Buck (or "Stag" for a sexually mature, dominant buck) -- Deer (or the old-fashioned "Hind") —- Fawn

Wild boar = Boar -- Sow -- Piglet (or, frequently in this area, just "Pig.") [This one's unusual in that the species is more commonly known by the MALE name, though they are also called "wild pig" by some people around here.]

Some terms get used across species, such as "Sow" for female bear as well as pigs, both domestic and wild, or "Queen" for sexually mature female ants, termites, and cats. “Tom” also works for both the male turkey and cat.

For domesticated animals, there's an additional term for the castrated male (if they are used for any purpose). For example, rabbits and ducks, while long domesticated are not normally castrated, hence no common term for the state. Dogs are castrated frequently enough and have been long enough that there OUGHT to be a term for them in English, but I can't think of one.

Human = Eunuch; Castrato; occasionally Gelding

Horse = Gelding

[Horses and humans also have separate terms for the young of both sexes - boy-girl : colt-filly - showing their cultural importance. The term "Entire" is sometimes used around here in place of “Stallion” to make even more specific that a male horse of any age has NOT been castrated; “Stallion” being reserved for a more mature male used specifically for breeding purposes.]

Cattle = Steer (when young or intended for meat); Ox (when older or intended as a work animal); occasionally Bullock. [The economic importance of the castrated male can be seen by the proliferation of terms.]

Rooster = Capon

Sheep or goat = Wether

Swine = Barrow (castrated before sexual maturity); Stag (castrated after sexual maturity)

I will have to appologize for this one

Dear Mac,

I do this quit often and then delete what I write.

That doesn't work if you interfere.

You see now I have to put my foot in my mouth.

Better still I will put my foot in your mouth

your antonia xxx

antonia (imported) wrote: Fri Jun 21, 2002 7:46 am I will have to appologize for this one

Troll = Andrew

Antonia,

That is not very nice.