cattle: [13] Ultimately, cattle is the same word as chattel [13], and when it first entered English it had the same meaning, ‘property’. From earliest times, however, it was applied specifically to livestock thought of as property. In the Middle Ages it was a wide-ranging term in animal husbandry, being used for horses, sheep, pigs, and even poultry and bees, as well as cows, and such usages survived dialectally until comparatively recently, but from the mid 16th century onwards there is increasing evidence of the word’s being restricted solely to cows.
Its ultimate source is medieval Latin capitāle ‘property’, which came to English via Old French chatel as chattel and via Anglo-Norman catel as cattle. Capitāle itself goes back to classical Latin capitālis (from caput ‘head’), from which English gets capital. => capital, chattel
cattle (n.)
mid-13c., "property," from Anglo-French catel "property" (Old North French catel, Old French chatel), from Medieval Latin capitale "property, stock," noun use of neuter of Latin adjective capitalis "principal, chief" (see capital (n.1)). Compare sense development of fee, pecuniary. Sense originally was of movable property, especially livestock; it began to be limited to "cows and bulls" from late 16c.
例文
1. The old stone cattle trough still sits by the main entrance.
古くなった石製牛の食道は玄関に置かれたままだ。
2.Outside，two old boys lingered on the street corner discussing cattle .
2人のおじいさんは外の街角でぐずぐずしていて、牛のことを話しています。
3.Cowboys drove covered wagons and rode horses，lassoing cattle .
カウボーイたちはキャラバンを追いかけたり、馬に乗ったり、投げたりして牛を捕ったりしています。
4.He had sought work as a cowboy，rounding up cattle .