A caller from Amherst, Massachusetts, says that her grandmother, born in 1869, never called a bull a “bull,” but instead simply called it “the animal.” This kind of euphemism, along with “gentleman cow,” supposedly helped avoid the delicate topic of the bull’s role in breeding. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Bull vs. Gentleman Cow”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hello, this is Anne.
Hi, Anne, where are you calling?
Yes, this is Martha. Where are you calling us from?
Amherst, Massachusetts.
Amherst. Well, welcome to the show.
How can we help you?
Well, I have a question about a phrase that my grandmother used that I have never seen in, you know, in any literature.
She was born in 1869, and she was not wealthy, but she was proper.
And my mother told me that she would never refer to a bull as a bull because of its role in impregnating cows.
So she called it the animal.
So I’m wondering if this was just my grandmother or if this was common in that era, the late 1800s, early 1900s.
So there’s an avoidance of the word bull because of the act of the bull in breeding.
Wow. I’ve heard of things similar to this, but never quite this.
I’ve never heard the animal used that way, but H.L. Mencken called that period the golden age of euphemism.
There were lots of different euphemisms like that for bulls, for that reason.
Tons of avoidance, yeah.
It was crazy how much they invested all their time in avoiding it because it was so suggestive to them.
There are all kinds of euphemisms like that from that period, you know, referring to a corset as a foundation.
Oh, she might have done that, actually, now that you’ve mentioned it.
Yeah?
Yeah, I think she might have.
Or you might talk about a flirtatious woman being very free in her manners.
Huh.
I’d be interested to hear if anybody else called bulls the animal as opposed to a cow brute.
And people actually said the cow brute, the gentleman cow.
Cow brute, male cow, critter, beast, anything but bull.
So your grandmother was connected to a larger trend in the history of English.
This kind of pulling back of saying words that had been considered ordinary
And deciding that they were newly improper to say.
Well, Anne, we appreciate your bringing this to our attention.
Well, thank you.
All right.
Take care now.
Bye-bye.
I love your show.
Oh, thank you.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
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