cow: English has two completely distinct words cow. The commoner, ‘female of cattle’ [OE], is a word of very ancient ancestry. It goes back via West and North Germanic *kōuz to a hypothetical Indo-European *gwōus, which was also the source of Latin bōs (from which English gets bovine, beef, and bugle, not to mention Bovril). In modern English its plural is cows, but Old English cū had an anomalous plural, cy, which in the remodelled form kine survived dialectally into the 20th century. The other cow, ‘intimidate, daunt’ [17], probably comes from Old Norse kúga ‘oppress’. => beef, bovine, bugle
cow (n.)
Old English cu "cow," from Proto-Germanic *kwon (cognates: Old Frisian ku, Middle Dutch coe, Dutch koe, Old High German kuo, German Kuh, Old Norse kyr, Danish, Swedish ko), earlier *kwom, from PIE *gwou- "cow, ox, bull" (cognates Sanskrit gaus, Greek bous, Latin bov-, Old Irish bo, Latvian guovs, Armenian gaus "cow," Slovak hovado "ox"), perhaps ultimately imitative of lowing (compare Sumerian gu, Chinese ngu, ngo "ox"). In Germanic and Celtic, of females only; in most other languages, of either gender. Other "cow" words sometimes are from roots meaning "horn, horned," such as Lithuanian karve, Old Church Slavonic krava. Compare kine.
cow (v.)
"intimidate," c. 1600, probably from Old Norse kuga "oppress," which is of unknown origin, but perhaps having something to do with cow (n.) on the notion of easily herded. Related: Cowed; cowing.
实用例句
1. Switzerland isn't all cow bells and yodelling, you know.
你知道，瑞士不仅仅只有牛铃声和约德尔调歌声。
来自柯林斯例句
2. Any product made from cow's milk made him vomit.
任何乳制品都会让他呕吐。
来自柯林斯例句
3. I'm not kidding, Frank. There's a cow out there, just standing around.
我没有开玩笑，弗兰克。外面有一头母牛，就站在附近。
来自柯林斯例句
4. The disease is more commonly known as Mad Cow Disease.
