Word of The Day -- Beeves -- October 6, 2024

Locator: 48515BEEVES.

Word of the day: beeves. Plural of beef. I first came across this word in Prairie Man by Norman E. Matteoni, page 60.

Not particularly good sources for the etymology / meaning of the word but this is a good start:

The plural of words with a "trailing f" such as hoof, calf, wife get their plurals by converting the "trailing f" to "ves" as in "calf" to "calves."

The question, of course, is why is the plural of "roof" not "rooves." As usual, social media has the answer:

From reddit:

Missing, of course, is "beef" to "beeves" but you can follow the thread here.  Pronunciation here (don't overthink this).

One might blow this off as an archaic term but this was the word used by the lawyer that authored Prairie Man, c. 2015.

This made my day. LOL.

The other day, Sophia was telling me that her teacher gave the students each a word with multiple meanings and the student to provide the multiple meanings: Sophia's word -- "season" and she immediately came up with three meanings of the word "season." 

Another word with three meanings given to another student: "seal." 

So, now, "beeves" is the plural of a specific "beef." I can think of three meanings of "beef."