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What is the difference between cattle and pen?

cattle | pen |

As nouns the difference between cattle and pen

is that cattle is domesticated bovine animals (cows, bulls, steers etc) while pen is an enclosed area used to contain domesticated animals, especially sheep or cattle.

As a verb pen is

to enclose in a pen.

cattle

English

(wikipedia cattle)

Noun

(usually used as plural)
  • Domesticated bovine animals (cows, bulls, steers etc).
  • Do you want to raise cattle ?
  • Certain other livestock, such as sheep, pigs or horses.
  • *
  • *
  • (pejorative, figuratively) People who resemble domesticated bovine animals in behavior or destiny.
  • * {{quote-book, 1961, Gerald Hanley, The Journey Homeward, page=155 citation
  • , passage="I always knew it, but I always denied it, because I'm one of them, and I'm like them." ¶"We're just cattle ," the Prison Governor said, relieved now.}}
  • chattel
  • goods and cattle
  • * {{quote-book, 1552, Parliament of England, An Act for the Uniformity of Common Prayer, and Service in the Church, and Administration of the Sacraments citation
  • , passage=That then every person so offending and convict, shall for his third offence, forfeit to our Sovereign Lady the Queen, all his goods and cattles , and shall suffer imprisonment during his life.}}
  • * {{quote-book, 1684, , Records of the Colony of New Plymouth, in New England, year_published=1856
  • , passage=1684 July. Mistris Dorothy Gray, Adminnestratrix of the Goods and Cattles of Mr Edward Gray, late of Plymouth, deceased,
  • (uncountable, rare)
  • * , The Squatting Age in Australia, 1835–1847 , Melbourne University Press (1964), page 315:
  • The temptation of a lone white man was too great for any gathering of myall -natives, and sheep-fat and cattle -steak seemed there for the spearing, so that a stockman always ran the risk of attack, especially if his shepherds interfered with the native women.
  • * Barry Hannah, “Eating Wife and Friends”, in Airships , Grove Press (1994), ISBN 978-0-8021-3388-5, page 137:
  • “But you cooked a human being and ate him,” say I.
    “I couldn’t help it,” says she. “I remember the cattle steaks of the old days, the juicy pork, the dripping joints of lamb, the venison.”
  • * 1996 April 3, Emmett Jordan, " Re: AR activist arrested for spreading 'Mad Cow' disease in US", in rec.food.veg, Usenet :
  • Believe it or not Big Mac is one of the ultra radicals who provide fast food cattle burgers to interstate vehicles who drive all over the place providing scraps for rats, cats, flies, etc, so that the Mad Cow Disease might spread even faster than it would otherwise do.
  • * 2005 June 25, "Serge" (username), " Re: WOW!!!! WHALE BURGERS...... McDonalds Don't You Get Any Ideas", in aus.politics and other newsgroups, Usenet :
  • If a particular whale species isn't endangered, then there's not a blind bit of difference between butchering them or cattle.
    Whale burgers. Cattle burgers......no difference!

    Usage notes

    There is no singular form for "cattle", and the words for the particular types of cattle are used: "bull", "calf" etc. * There are five cows''' and a '''calf''' in that herd of '''cattle . Where the type is unknown, "cow" is often used (although properly a cow is only an adult female). * Is that a cow in the road? When used as an uncountable noun, the phrase "head of cattle" is used for countable quantities of cattle. * He sold 50 head of cattle last year. However, "cattle" is often used as an ordinary plural rather than as as an uncountable noun. * I have fifteen cattle . In some circumstances the uncountable form is not used. * How many cattle'''?'' (not ''how much '''cattle ? ).

    Synonyms

    * (domesticated bovine animals) , Bos (scientific) * (people who resemble domesticated bovine animals in behavior or destiny) sheeple (pejorative)

    Derived terms

    * all hat and no cattle * Australian Cattle Dog * cattlebeast * cattle call * cattle car * cattle catcher * cattle grid * cattle guard * cattleman * cattle prod * cattle-rearing * cattle truck * cattlewoman * Texas cattle fever

    See also

    (Other entries associated with cattle) * Angus * bull * Bos taurus * bovine * calf * cow * herd * ox * steer

    pen

    English

    (wikipedia pen)

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) . More at pin. Sense “prison” originally figurative extension to enclosure for persons (1845), later influenced by

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An enclosed area used to contain domesticated animals, especially sheep or cattle.
  • There are two steers in the third pen .
  • A place to confine a person; a prison cell.
  • They caught him with a stolen horse, and he wound up in the pen again.
  • (baseball) The bullpen.
  • Two righties are up in the pen .

    Verb

  • To enclose in a pen.
  • * Milton
  • Watching where shepherds pen their flocks at eve.

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) (m), from (etyl) (Modern English (m)); note the /p/ ? /f/ Germanic sound change. See feather and for more.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A tool, originally made from a feather but now usually a small tubular instrument, containing ink used to write or make marks.
  • He took notes with a pen .
  • (figurative) A writer, or his style.
  • He has a sharp pen .
  • * Fuller
  • those learned pens
  • A light pen.
  • (zoology) The internal cartilage skeleton of a squid, shaped like a pen.
  • A feather, especially one of the flight feathers of a bird, angel etc.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spendser, The Faerie Queene , I.xi:
  • And eke the pennes , that did his pineons bynd, / Were like mayne-yards, with flying canuas lynd, / With which whenas him list the ayre to beat
  • (poetic) A wing.
  • (Milton)
    Derived terms
    * ball pen * ball-point pen * border pen * bull pen * cartridge pen * felt-tip pen * fountain pen * goose pen * lettering pen * pen cancellation * pen feather * pen-mate * penmanship * pen name * pen pal * pen-pusher * poison pen * you don't dip your pen in company ink

    Verb

    (penn)
  • To write (an article, a book, etc.).
  • Etymology 3

    Origin uncertain.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A female swan.
  • Etymology 4

    Shortned form of penalty

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • penalty
  • References