OHG - nice link, thanks! I never understood why chicken is chicken, but beef and cow. ((shrug)) city-girl, I guess.
Smiles,
Grinity
Best I can figure is a cow denotes a gender and maturity level of a bovine, beef is a generic term for the meat. 'Chicken' isn't gender specific.
You can refer to eating a steer, a neutered male raised primarily for food; a bull, raised primarily for breeding but butchered at 12-20 months is good eating and leaner and richer flavored than a steer. A cow or older bull, is leaner and stronger flavored, generally used for hamburger.
OK, that was my unsolicited, cattleman public service post of the day, hahaha.