B1–1

The word beef, which refers to the flesh of a cow or an ox, did not come to England with William the Conqueror, as many people believe: it was first brought over from France in the thirteenth century. There are records of beef eaten nearly 4500 years ago and beef was the most popular food with the Romans when they arrived in Britain. The Anglo Saxons tended to prefer mutton or pork, but the Normans were definetely keener on beef. The Normans also preferred cow’s milk to sheep’s milk and as a result there was a steady rise in the number of cows in Britain, so that by the 13th century beef had become the country’s favourite meat. It has kept that position ever since and the ‘roast beef of old England’ has a special place not only in the hearts of the English people but also in their cuisine, especialy when beef is accompanied by Yorkshire pudding, a traditional English dish. The word beef has also acquired several metaphoric meanings in today English. It can mean ‘muscular power or effort’, as in the adjective ‘beefy’or to complain, as in ‘Stop beefing about your job all the time’. Both of these uses of the word came over from the United States in the nineteenth century.