beef
/biːf/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.29 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "I love eating beef."
- "He was cooking beef for lunch."
- "But the cars & trucks held cartons of roast chickens, slabs of cheeses, loaves of bread, racks of hotdogs, case upon case of soft drinks, cases of bottled sparkling water, pies, cakes, roast beefs & baked hams."
- "lean finely textured beef"
- "boneless lean beef trimmings"
- "McDonald’s has been vocal about adding more chicken to its menu, which is generally cheaper than beef. CEO Chris Kempczinski said in its most recent earnings call that it’s focused on adding “growth drivers like chicken” in an attempt to reverse slumping sales. Chicken is now on par with beef sales at its restaurants, he added."
Etymology
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /biːf/
- British English: /biːf/