1894 Brewer’s / F / Food
Sir Walter Scott remarks that live cattle go by Saxon names, and slain meat by Norman-French, a standing evidence that the Normans were the lords who ate the meat, and the Saxons the serfs who tended the cattle. Examples:
Sheep Ox Calf Hog Pig (Saxon).
Mutton Beef Veal Bacon Pork (Norman-French).
Food of the gods. (See Ambrosia, Nectar.)
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.