heifer
Contents
EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Middle English hayfare, hayfre, from Old English heahfore, hēahfre, compound of (1) *heag- (“mating”) (compare dialectal German Hagen, Hegel (“breeding bull”), Middle Dutch haechdroese (“genitals”), Old English hagan (“id.”)), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱak- (“to be able, help”) (compare Sanskrit शक्नोति (śaknóti, “to be able”), Avestan 𐬯𐬀𐬐- (sak-, “to agree”)) and (2) -fore (compare English elver, fieldfare, Old English sceolfor (“cormorant”)).[1]
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
heifer (plural heifers)
- A young female cow, (particularly) one over one year old but which has not calved.
- 1611, KJV, Numbers 19:1-2
- And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, This is the ordinance of the law which the LORD hath commanded, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke.
- 1611, KJV, Numbers 19:1-2
- (obsolete) A wife.
- 1616, Ben Jonson, Epicœne, Ch. ii., in Works, Vol. I, p. 549:
- Her, whom I shall choose for my heicfar.
- 1616, Ben Jonson, Epicœne, Ch. ii., in Works, Vol. I, p. 549:
- (informal, derogatory, obsolete) A girl.
- 1853, T.C. Haliburton, Sam Slick's Wise Saws, Vol. II., p. 282:
- I have half a mind to marry that heifer, tho' wives are bothersome critters when you have too many of them.
- 1853, T.C. Haliburton, Sam Slick's Wise Saws, Vol. II., p. 282:
- (informal, derogatory) A cow: a large, unattractive, unpleasant woman.
- 2001, Glenda Howard, Cita's World
- My hand was aching to slap that silly heifer. I told her to take her trifling ass down to Burger King and get herself a job flipping burgers...
- 2001, Glenda Howard, Cita's World
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
young cow
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ugly or objectionable woman
ReferencesEdit
- ^ Anatoly Liberman, An Analytic Dictionary of English Etymology: An Introduction, s.v. “heifer” (Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 2008), 101-5.