Unnumbered source etymology · variant 1/2
Original entry ↗Being a bovine animal that is being raised for its meat. · Producing or known for raising lots of beef. · Consisting of or containing beef as an ingredient. · Beefy; powerful; robust.
To complain. · To add weight or strength to. · To fart; break wind. · To cry.
From Middle English beef, bef, beof, borrowed from Anglo-Norman beof, Old French buef, boef (“ox”) (modern French bœuf); from Latin bovem (“ox”), from Proto-Italic *gʷōs, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷṓws. Doublet of cow. Beef in the sense of “a grudge, argument” was originally an American slang expression: * attested as a verb “to complain” in 1888: “He'll beef an' kick like a steer an' let on he won't never wear 'em.”— New York World, 13 May; * attested as a noun “complaint, protest, grievance, sim.” in 1899: “He made a Horrible Beef because he couldn't get Loaf Sugar for his Coffee.”—Fables in Slang (1900) by George Ade, page 80. As to the possible origin of this American usage, it has been suggested that it can be traced back to a British expression for “alarm”, first recorded in 1725: "BEEF 'to alarm, as To cry beef upon us; they have discover'd us, and are in Pursuit of us". The term "beef" in this context would be a Cockney rhyming slang of thief. However, the continuous use of a similar expression, including its assumed semantic shift to 'complaint' in the United States from the 1880s onwards, needs further clarification.
Relationships mentioned by the source
These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.
This page abbreviates 3 auxiliary source items. The etymology narrative is not shortened. Omission counts are available in the audit fields below; consult the original for complete auxiliary material.
Inspect preserved source fields
Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.
{
"templates": [
{
"name": "ety",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": ":inh",
"3": "enm:bef"
},
"expansion": "[Appendix:Glossary#loanword|Borrowed]] from\", \"terms\" : [ { \"alt\" : \"beof\", \"children\" : [ { \"terms\" : [ { \"alt\" : \"bovem\", \"children\" : [ { \"keyword_abbrev\" : \"bor.\", \"is_uncertain\" : true, \"keyword_label\" : \"Borrowed from\", \"terms\" : [ { \"lang_name\" : \"Osco-Umbrian\", \"status\" : \"inline\", \"children\" : [ { \"terms\" : [ { \"id\" : \"cow\", \"children\" : [ { \"terms\" : [ { \"id\" : \"cattle\", \"children\" : [ ], \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang_name\" : \"Proto-Indo-European\", \"term\" : \"*gʷṓws\", \"lang\" : \"ine-pro\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang_name\" : \"Proto-Italic\", \"term\" : \"*gʷōs\", \"lang\" : \"itc-pro\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"lang\" : \"itc-sbl\" } ], \"keyword\" : \"bor\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"Latin\", \"term\" : \"bos\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"la\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"Anglo-Norman\", \"term\" : \"buef\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"xno\" } ], \"keyword\" : \"bor\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"Middle English\", \"term\" : \"bef\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"enm\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"English\", \"term\" : \"beef\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"en\" }\" data-lang=\"en\" data-title=\"beef\">"
},
{
"name": "inh",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "enm",
"3": "bef",
"4": "beef, bef, beof"
},
"expansion": "Middle English beef, bef, beof"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "xno",
"3": "beof"
},
"expansion": "Anglo-Norman beof"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "fro",
"3": "buef"
},
"expansion": "Old French buef"
},
{
"name": "m+",
"args": {
"1": "fr",
"2": "bœuf"
},
"expansion": "French bœuf"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "la",
"3": "bōs",
"4": "bovem",
"5": "ox"
},
"expansion": "Latin bovem (“ox”)"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "itc-pro",
"3": "*gʷōs"
},
"expansion": "Proto-Italic *gʷōs"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ine-pro",
"3": "*gʷṓws"
},
"expansion": "Proto-Indo-European *gʷṓws"
},
{
"name": "doublet",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "cow"
},
"expansion": "Doublet of cow"
},
{
"name": "ety",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": ":inh",
"3": "enm:bef"
},
"expansion": ""
}
],
"links": [
[
"beef, bef, beof",
"bef#Middle_English"
],
[
"beof",
"beof#Old_French"
],
[
"buef",
"buef#Old_French"
],
[
"boef",
"boef#Old_French"
],
[
"bœuf",
"bœuf#French"
],
[
"bovem",
"bos#Latin"
],
[
"*gʷōs",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Italic/gʷōs"
],
[
"*gʷṓws",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/gʷṓws"
],
[
"cow",
"cow#English"
],
[
"thief",
"thief#English"
]
],
"references": [],
"descendants": [],
"lexical": [
{
"pos": "adj",
"glosses": [
"Being a bovine animal that is being raised for its meat.",
"Producing or known for raising lots of beef.",
"Consisting of or containing beef as an ingredient.",
"Beefy; powerful; robust."
],
"tags": [
"not-comparable",
"slang"
],
"recordId": "5096686a2bcd9b3ba3155ab1404e60c58011a0cc3387d4b8638ab25e0dda6b8e",
"rawRecordSha256": "bfa6fa2c498d2db15005fe23d074354bd02322d55426ff5d4af00c2eca8d2545",
"sourceRecordOrdinal": 188801
},
{
"pos": "verb",
"glosses": [
"To complain.",
"To add weight or strength to.",
"To fart; break wind.",
"To cry."
],
"tags": [
"intransitive",
"slang",
"transitive",
"Yorkshire"
],
"recordId": "ef1de726deac4ba71b7cdf5f7256c3effc4784900166f363680c3558f0db0ced",
"rawRecordSha256": "75d9b84c9a6542bd167fc2d3d344a36019a2c7082b86c15d0574e058ede3fc04",
"sourceRecordOrdinal": 188800
}
],
"omittedAuxiliaryFields": {
"templates": 0,
"links": 0,
"references": 0,
"descendants": 0,
"lexicalRecords": 0,
"lexicalSenses": 3,
"glosses": 0
}
}