cow 93 



Ch. Slav, gov-edo (ox) ; Old High Ger. Kiio ; Ger. Kuh ; A. S. 

 cu ; Scot, coo ; Eng. cow. The word " laithre " comes from 

 "laith/' milk. Elsewhere we find it thus stated "Sanscrit, gu, 

 Zend, gao, Persian, gaic, Armenian, Kov, Scandinavian, Ku." Again 

 we read that the Sanscrit word is "gava" or "gaw," and the 

 Persian " Gaw " and " Koh," being simplified into the childish term 

 "moo," all in imitation of the animal's sound; while "bo baide " 

 stands for a pet cow ; the name " Bosphorus " is also said to con- 

 tain the word "bos" or "bo." One searcher advances the theory 

 as follows : " The letters b and c as is known are continually in 

 exchange in languages — comp. for instance cos, foot, and Greek 

 fiovs. Hence, ho and the Sanscrit Go, cow or bull, must be the 

 same word ; so also the English ' cow.' If ho is an imitation of 

 the cow's sound, it may be considered the more primitive form." 

 The Irish Gaelic aoi, a flock or herd of cows, forms aoire, a 

 shepherd, a cowherd ; the word " tidy or tydie," according to 

 Jamieson, is from the Teutonic word tydigh, in season, mature, 

 ripe. A herd, in Irish, is called Bocale, while Buas-ce is given as 

 " the land of cattle or cows," while " Buasach " means one who 

 has many cows ; another term is Cailehhearh, while the word 

 " bualaidh," a cow stall, is just bo and laidh ; the word " sed " 

 originally meant a standard of cows (or cattle) by which prices, 

 etc., were determined, i.e., one milch cow ; sed bo ceathra, a sed 

 also made up of small cattle ; sed bo dile, of different kinds of 

 live stock ; sed marbh dile, of movable chattels inanimate ; and 

 sed bo slabhra, of every class of well-bred cattle and thorough- 

 bred horses. (" Crith-gabhlach " tract.) " Gesca dina buaib " is 

 given by Whitley Stokes in the Revue Celtique, and is there said to 

 mean "branches of the cows," i.e., the best or youngest of the 

 herd. Gesca we think may be a misprint for "geuga," i.e., " geuga 

 de na buaibh." The word " agh," we learn from the Revue Celtique, 

 signifies also " cath," battle. The word " Fearb " is vouched for 

 by O'Clery, who says "as ainm do Bhoin iar bfhior," the name for 

 cow most truly. Whitley Stokes gives us in his version of the 

 second battle of Moytura a saying of a poet, Corpre MacEtain, as 

 follows . . . "Cen gert (cen coim cen geilt) ferbba (Gen. of bo), 

 fora n-assa athirni (loeg)." Without a cow's milk whereon a calf 

 grows ... let that be Bres' condition. Aithrine, a calf or 

 heifer said to be "agh r'inne," newly born heifer. An Irish 

 Gaelic saying when cows run in the fields from heat is, " Ta na 

 ba aig imthreacht le fibin — or a'ruatharbhach. Teashhach, or our 

 own term air theas, is another expression for this. Two terms for 

 cows are as follow : " Forra-coo," one milking for nine or ten 

 months and not with calf, and " Fitty-forra-coo," one milking for 

 fifteen months the same. When a cow is near calving she is said 

 to be " coming forward to her note," i.e., the note of the time kept. 

 A Kerry cow, five years old, is in May. 



No animal bulks more largely or has held a more prominent 



