Musing

[dogriver]

Please, another of you impeccable English speakers help me out here. There should be a one-word answer to this, but I can not think of one, and I suspect there is none. Please fill in the blank.

Human is to humans as {blank} is to cattle.

Comments

[torenheksje.livejournal.com]

Ack. Well, then I'm stumped. All I can think of is the Latin term, which is two words. :c/ Sorry I couldn't help.

humans vs. cattle

[3kitties.livejournal.com]

It doesn't really work... (This isn't for a puzzle, is it? If so, how does the puzzle work and have you tried cows or oxen?) Technically, cattle can refer to a number of things: oxen, cows, bulls, steers, etc. Cows is the general term, but it also refers to the feminine if I remember correctly. I am not really familiar with all the cattle terminology.

Re: humans vs. cattle

[masterofmusings.livejournal.com]

I'm just trying to figure out what a single one of those things would be called. A female's a cow and a male's a bull, but the same can be said for whales. But a single one of them, be it cow or bull, is a whale. What's a single ... whatever?

Re: humans vs. cattle

[imafarmgirl.livejournal.com]

The problem is cows means female and would exclude steers and bulls then.