Cattle

sb. Forms: 3–5 (occas. 6) catel, (4 cadel, catil, catele, cathel, katel, -ell, ketele, 4–5 (occas. 6–7) catell, catelle, 4–6 catayl, 5 catail, catayll(e, catal, -ale, 5–8 -all); 6–8 cattel, cattell, (6–7 cattal, -all, cattaile, 6 cattayle); 7– cattle. See also CHATTEL. [ME. catel, a. ONF. catel [= central OF. chatel, Pr. captal, capdal):—late L. captāle, L. capitāle, neuter of the adj. capitālis head-, principal, CAPITAL, used subst. in mediæval times in the sense ‘principal sum of money, capital, wealth, property’; cf. mod.Eng. CAPITAL = stock in trade. Thus Papias has ‘capitale, caput pecuniæ, capitis summa,’ the Catholicon ‘capitale, pecunia.’ Under the feudal system the application was confined to movable property or wealth, as being the only ‘personal’ property, and in English it was more and more identified with ‘beast held in possession, live stock,’ which was almost the only use after 1500, exc. in the technical phrase ‘goods and catells (cattals)’ which survived till the 17th c. In legal Anglo-French, the Norman catel was superseded at an early period by the Parisian chatel; this continued to be used in the earlier and wider sense (subject however to legal definition), and has in modern times passed into a certain current use as CHATTEL, so that the phrase just cited is now also since 16th c. ‘goods and chattels.’ Down to 1500 the typical spelling was catel; in the 16th c. this became cattel, cattell; only since 1600, and chiefly since 1700, spelt cattle. As this spelling is never found in earlier use, and, hence, never in the earlier sense, it would be possible to treat this sense as a separate word Catel, property, but on the other hand the modern sense has all the forms catel, cattel(l, cattle, according to date, and the history is better elucidated by treating the word as a historical whole. CHATTEL, however, as a distinct modern form and sense, is dealt with in its own place.

  OF. (besides the ch- forms, for which see CHATTEL) had, according to dialect and date, the forms catel, katel, cathel, cateul, cateil. Hence the ME. variants cathel, catail, -ayl. The Norman word was again latinized as catellum, catallum, the latter esp. current in English law-Latin, whence the forms catal(l, cattal(l, so frequent in 15–16th c., esp. in the legal phrase ‘goods and cattals.’]

  † I.  Property, article of property, chattel. Obs. (Forms catel, cattel(l.)

  † 1.  Property, substance; strictly personal property or estate, wealth, goods. Obs.

c. 1275.  Lay., 30673. He nam tonnes [gode] and þat catel [1205 æhte] dude [þer] ine.

a. 1300.  Sarmun, 46, in E. E. P. (1862), 6. Siþ þat þe world nis noȝt and catel nis bot vanite.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 27934. It wastes bodi and als catel [v.r. ketele].

c. 1325.  Metr. Hom. (1862), 131. An unseli knafe That wald gladli katel have.

1387.  Trevisa, Higden, VI. ix. Clerkes … spende the catayle of holy chyrche in other places at theyr owne wille.

a. 1400[?].  Manuale Sarisb., Sponsalia, in Maskell, Mon. Rit. (1882), I. 58. With all my worldely cathel I the endowe.

a. 1400.  Relig. Pieces fr. Thornton MS. (1867), 6. Robes or reches or oþer catell.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 63. Catelle [K. catal], catalum, census.

1495.  W. de Worde, ed. Barth. De P. R., III. iii. 57. By loue of worldly catall.

  † b.  Money; esp. capital, as distinct from interest.

c. 1330.  Amis & Amil., 1855. Al her catel than was spent Saue tvelf pans.

a. 1340.  Hampole, Psalter xiv. 6. He þat gaf noght his katel til okyre.

1340.  Ayenb., 36. Þet hi habbe huet cas yualle: hire catel sauf.

1483.  Caxton, Gold. Leg., 267/1. Fader I haue wonne nothyng but haue lost your catayll.

  † c.  fig. Obs.

1388.  Wyclif, Ecclus. xxx. 15. No catel is aboue the catel [1382 monee] of helthe of bodi.

c. 1400.  Maundev., Prol. 2. More precious Catelle, ne gretter Ransoum ne myghte he put for us then his blessede body.

  † d.  Sometimes used in conjunction with other terms for ‘property’: see 3.

1387.  Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), I. 229. Þey þat … gadereþ money and corn and catel of oþer men.

1393.  Gower, Conf., II. 128. Of golde, of catel, or of londe.

c. 1394.  P. Pl. Crede, 116. Oþer catell oþer cloþ to coveren wiþ our bones.

  e.  fig. Rubbish, trash. (But cf. 1 Cor. ix. 9.)

1643.  Milton, Divorce, I. (1851), iv. 28. Certainly not the meere motion of carnall lust, not the meer goad of a sensitive desire; God does not principally take care for such cattell.

  † 2.  As an individual sing. = CHATTEL, with collective pl. originally in association with ‘goods’ or other pl. noun. Obs.

  This use was evidently derived from law-Latin, in which catallum, catalla were so used. Cf. cum suis catallis omnibus mobilibus, cited by Du Cange, from Leg. Edw. Conf., p. 894, and the phrase melius catallum the best chattel, droit de meilleur catel, the heriot, ibid.

1477.  Earl Rivers (Caxton), Dictes, 68. Sapience … can not be lost as other catalles and wordely goodes may.

1502.  Arnolde, Chron. (1811), 245. The residew of alle my goodis, catellis, and dettis.

1641.  Termes de la Ley, 49 b. Catals comprehend in it selfe all goods mooveable & immooveable, except such as are in nature of freehold…. Catals are either reall or personall.

1644.  [H. Parker], Jus Populi, 37. The condition of a slave is worse than of a beast, or any inanimate Cattels.

1720.  Stow’s Surv. (ed. Strype, 1754), II. V. xxvi. 457/1. That they ought not to be taxed of their rents and Catalls.

  † b.  fig. (see 1 c.) Obs.

1489.  Caxton, Faytes of A., III. xv. 203. They setten in aduenture so dere a catell as is … the lyffe.

1567.  Wills & Inv. N. C. (1835), I. 273. Superstitions and feyned cattells onlye deuised to illud the symple and vnlerned.

  3.  Often used in the phrase Goods and cattel; later more frequently goods and cattels, of which the extant form is goods and chattels: see CHATTEL.

  As in this sense the form cattals is specially prevalent, it looks like a translation of a legal Anglo-Lat. bona et catalla. Du Cange quotes from Leg. Edw. Conf., c. 35 Cum decimis omnium terrarum, ac bonorum aliorum sive catallorum.

  c. 1430.  Freemasonry, 468. Take here goodes and here cattelle Unto the kynges hond, everydelle.

1436.  Test. Ebor. (1855), II. 76. Y^e residewe of all my godes and my catell.

1464.  in Paston Lett., 493, II. 167. The administracion of the goods and catell.

1495.  Act 11 Hen. VII., xlv. Londes, tenementes, godes, catail, and all other the premysses.

  1418.  E. E. Wills (1882), 35. The Residue of alle my Godes & my Catallys mebles.

1450.  in Paston Lett., 107. I. 144. Whiche riotous peple … bare awey alle the goodes and catalx.

1454.  in Ellis, Orig. Lett., II. 38, I. 121. And toke godes and catals.

1528.  in W. H. Turner, Select. Rec. Oxford, 61. Y^e goods or catells of y^e said schollers.

1597.  1st Pt. Return fr. Parnass., I. i. 185. It’s all the goods and cattels thy father lefte thee.

1660.  R. Coke, Power & Subj., 211. All contributions to the see of Rome … were forbidden upon pain of forfeiture of all the goods and cattals for ever.

  ¶ The transition to sense 4 is seen in the following:

1529.  Frith, Pistle to Chr. Reader, 10. Commaunded to destroye the kynge of Amelech and all his goodes, howbeit he spared the kinges liffe & y^e fayrest goodes & catelles, makinge sacrifice with them.

1547.  Homilies, I. Falling from God, I. Y^t he should kyl al the amalechites, and destroye them clerely, with their goodes and cattals: yet he … saued … all the chief of their cattall [ed. 1574 has cattel, cattell], therwith to make sacrifice.

  II.  Live stock. (Forms catel, cattel(l, cattle.)

  4.  A collective name for live animals held as property, or reared to serve as food, or for the sake of their milk, skin, wool, etc.

  The application of the term has varied greatly, according to the circumstances of time and place, and has included camels, horses, asses, mules, oxen, cows, calves, sheep, lambs, goats, swine, etc. The tendency in recent times has been to restrict the term to the bovine genus, but the wider meaning is still found locally, and in many combinations. As this sense was originally comprised under 1, distinct instances before 1500 are scarce.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 6002. Hors, asse, mule, ox, camell, Dun þan deid all þair catell.

1375.  Barbour, Bruce, XVIII. 274. Bot cattell haf thai fundyn nane, Outane a kow that wes haltand.

c. 1425.  Wyntoun, Cron., I. xiii. 8. And tyl all catale pasture gwde.

1523.  Fitzherb., Husb., § 37. Shepe in myne opynyon is the mooste profytablest cattell that any man can haue.

1535.  Fisher, Wks., I. (1876), 391. When hee goeth to hys pastures to see hys Cattayle.

1577.  B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb. (1586), 125 b. The Camel is cheefly used in y^e east parts, which some suppose to be the serviceablest cattell for man that is. Ibid., 153 b. The Dogge (though the Lawyer alloweth him not in the number of cattel) and though he yeeldes of himselfe no profite, yet is he … to be esteemed.

1580.  Sidney, Arcadia, III. 400. Blithe were the common cattell of the field.

1604.  E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, III. xvi. 170. There are great numbers of cattell, especially swine.

1607.  Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 183. The goatherds of the countrey do give thereof to their cattel.

1650.  Fuller, Pisgah, II. ii. 80. How came the Gadarens, being undoubtedly Jews … to keep such a company of useless cattell [= swine]?

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 590. Is Wool thy Care? Let not thy Cattle go … where Burs and Thistles grow.

1741–2.  Act 15 & 16 Geo. II., xxxiv. By cattle, in this act, is to be understood any bull, cow, ox, steer, bullock, heifer, calf, sheep, and lamb, and no other cattle whatever.

1767.  A. Young, Farmer’s Lett. People, 297. Cattle of no kind will thrive but in the master’s eye.

a. 1856.  Longf., Psalm of Life. Be not like dumb driven cattle, Be a hero in the strife.

1875.  Jevons, Money (1878), 89. The former use of cattle as a medium of exchange.

  † b.  Extended to fowls, bees, etc. Obs. or arch.

c. 1420.  Pallad. on Husb., I. 1057. So made that lysardes may not ascende, Ne wicked worme this catell [bees] for to offende.

1577.  B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb. (1586), 163. I wilnot refuse to shew you somwhat also of my feathered cattel.

1589.  R. Harvey, Pl. Perc., 17. Take heed, thine owne Cattaile sting thee not.

1622.  Mabbe, trans. Aleman’s Guzman d’Alf., I. 139. In breeding of Cattell, as Pigs, Hens, and Chickens, and the like.

1830.  Carlyle, Misc. (1857), II. 129. Among all manner of bovine, swinish and feathered cattle.

  c.  Now usually confined to, or understood of, bovine animals.

1555.  Eden, Decades W. Ind., I. X. (Arb.), 104. Neat or cattall becoome of bygger stature.

1570.  Levins, Manip., 55. Cattel, boves, jumenta.

1605.  Camden, Rem., 1. Replenished with cattell both tame and wilde.

1673.  Ray, Journ. Low C., 57. Their Horse and Cattel.

1756.  Gentl. Mag., XXVI. 73. Fair for the sale of black cattle once a fortnight…. There is belonging to Chillingham Castle a large park where there is a kind of wild cattle which are all white.

1836.  Penny Cycl., VI. 378/2. In the usual acceptation of the word [cattle] it is confined to the ox.

1887.  Daily News, 11 Jan., 2/4. A fair demand for both cattle and sheep.

  d.  In the language of the stable, applied to horses.

a. 1680.  Butler, Rem. (1759), I. 224.

1733.  Fielding, Quix. in Eng., I. iii. Your worship’s cattle are saddled.

1750.  Coventry, Pompey Litt., II. iv. (1785), 58/1. He kept a phaeton chaise, and four ‘bay cattle.’

1826.  Scott, Woodst., III. viii. 218. I am to meet Sir John Acland and fresh cattle.

1835.  Sir G. Stephen, Search of Horse, ii. 34. All the disabled cattle of the summer stages to Brighton, Southampton, and so forth.

1886.  ‘J. S. Winter,’ In Quarters, 5. To cast reflections unfavorable to the new-comers upon their appearance, their form, the color of their uniform, the class of their cattle, and the general tone of their demeanor.

  e.  Applied by slaveholders to their slaves.

1852.  Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., II. xxxiii. 196. What have any of you cussed cattle to do with thinking what ’s right?

  5.  Used also as an ordinary plural of number. † b. rarely as a singular = beast, ox, etc.

1624.  Capt. Smith, Virginia, IV. 123. We found there in all one hundred twentie eight cattell.

1725.  Minute Bk. Soc. Antiq. (Brand s.v. Funerals), A hundred black cattle are killed.

1796.  W. H. Marshall, Yorksh. (ed. 2), I. 158. A cattle, when it goes into a drinking pit … throws the chief part of its weight upon its fore feet.

  6.  With attributes; Neat cattle, horned cattle: oxen, bovine animals. Black cattle: ‘oxen, bulls, and cows’ (J.); prob. at first properly applied to the black breeds found in the highlands of Scotland, Wales, and other districts, to which it is still by some restricted, but as other colors appear in the progeny of these, the name has come to have a general application.

1535.  Coverdale, 1 Kings iv. 23. Ten fat oxen, and twenty small catell, and an hundreth shepe.

1701.  Col. Rec. Penn., II. 27. That there shall be no neat Cattle kill’d.

1725.  Min. Book Soc. Antiq., 21 July (Brand). After the body [of a Highland chief] is interred, a hundred black cattle and two or three hundred sheep are killed for the entertainment of the company.

1753.  Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v. Cattle, Black Cattle more particularly denotes the cow kind. These are also denominated neat cattle.

1781.  Gibbon, Decl. & F., II. xlii. 555. Their sheep and horned cattle were large and numerous.

1803.  Bristed, Pedest. Tour, II. 450. We now turned due west over the mountains, and … met some black-cattle drovers.

1815.  Scott, Guy M., iv. Green pastures, tenanted chiefly by herds of black cattle, then the staple commodity of the country.

1836.  Penny Cycl., VI. 378/2. [Cattle] In the usual acceptation … is confined to the ox, or what is called black cattle or horned cattle. But as many varieties are not black, and several have no horns, the name neat cattle is more appropriate.

1864.  D. G. Mitchell, Wet Days at Edgewood, 257. Nor was Bakewell less known for his stock of neat cattle, [etc.].

1868.  G. Duff, Pol. Surv., 209. The horned cattle, horses, and sheep are remarkably fine.

  7.  In various extended uses; mostly contemptuous: a. of vermin, insects, and the like. ? Obs.

1616.  Surfl. & Markh., Countr. Farm, 170. In the holes of this wicked cattell [Rats]. Ibid., 318. Lizards and serpents, and other noysome cattell.

a. 1656.  Bp. Hall, Invis. World, III. iii. Doth he fetch frogs out of Nilus?… they can store Egypt with loathsome cattle as well as he.

1639.  T. de Gray, Compl. Horsem., 100. It hath caused the Horse to voyd many of these bad Cattle [worms].

1673.  Cave, Prim. Chr., II. vii. 169. Flies, Wasps, and such little Cattel.

1685.  R. Burton, Eng. Emp. Amer., iv. 86. Tame Cattel they have none except Lice.

  b.  of men and women, with reference to various preceding senses. arch.

1579.  Gosson, Sch. Abuse (Arb.), 27. We haue infinite Poets, and Pipers, and suche peeuishe cattel among vs in Englande, that liue by merrie begging.

1600.  Shaks., A. Y. L., III. ii. 435. Boyes and women are … cattle of this colour.

1682.  Evelyn, Diary, 24 Jan. The Dutchess of Portsmouth, Nelly,… concubines, and cattell of that sort, as splendid as jewells … could make them.

1690.  B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Sad Cattle, Impudent Lewd Women.

1768.  H. Walpole, Hist. Doubts, 11. To have consulted astrologers and such like cattle.

1823.  Scott, Peveril, xx. To sweep this north country of such like cattle [priests].

  III.  Attrib. and Comb. (all belonging to branch II, and referring mainly to bovine animals).

  8.  General relations: a. objective or obj. gen. with verbal sb. or agent noun, as cattle-breeder, -breeding, -dealer, -driving, -drover, -farming, -hougher, -houghing, -killing, -rearing, -stealing.

1827.  Whately, Logic, in Encycl. Metrop. (1845), 234/1. Bakewell, the celebrated *cattle-breeder.

1877.  trans. Tiele’s Hist. Relig., 17. Without neglecting *cattle-breeding and agriculture.

1824.  Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. I. (1863), 103. A rich and liberal *cattle-dealer in the neighbourhood.

1878.  Simpson, Sch. Shaks., I. 60. If *cattle-driving was to be interpreted as levying war.

1806.  Forsyth, Beauties Scotl., IV. 260. The object of *cattle-farming is chiefly breeding.

1886.  Pall Mall Gaz., 8 May, 1/2. Executing the just judgment of offended Heaven upon *cattle-houghers, traitors, and assassins.

1831.  Southey, Lett. (1856), IV. 217. B—— … is literally a *cattle jobber.

1872.  Yeats, Techn. Hist. Comm., 37. *Cattle-rearing formed an important branch of Egyptian agriculture.

1803.  Edin. Rev., I. 404. The renown of *cattle-stealers.

  b.  attrib., as cattle-cabbage, -close, -culture, -dropping, -farm, -feed, -food, -herd, -market, -park, -pen, -show, -trade, -trough, etc.; (connected with the transport of cattle), as cattle siding, -steamer, -train, -truck, -wagon, etc.; c. instrumental and parasynthetic, as cattle-specked, -sprent, etc.; d. cattle-farm vb. (rare).

1865.  Miss Cary, Ball. & Lyrics, 5. She … found him In the dusty *cattle-close.

1886.  Bazaar, 18 Oct., 415. We devote the greatest attention to oyster-culture, bee-culture, *cattle-culture.

1810.  F. Clater (title), Every Man his own *Cattle Doctor.

1883.  G. C. Davies, Norfolk Broads, xxxiv. (1884), 267. In a place where *cattle-droppings were abundant.

1881.  Mrs. C. Praed, Policy & P., I. 51. He *cattle-farms a few thousand acres after an amateur fashion.

1832.  Ht. Martineau, Demerara, iii. 34. We have the *cattle-feed to gather.

1821.  in W. Cobbett, Rur. Rides (1885), I. 29. My … system of *cattle-food husbandry.

1844.  Marg. Fuller, Woman 19th C. (1862), 45. Penelope is no more meant for a baker or a weaver solely than Ulysses for a *cattle-herd.

1838.  Dickens, O. Twist, xvi. Pens for beasts: and other indications of a *cattle-market.

1813.  Wellington, Lett., in Gurw., Disp., X. 428. If … our *Cattle parks are to be plundered with impunity.

1837.  Carlyle, Fr. Rev., III. I. ii. Hurled in thither as into *cattle-pens.

1870.  Daily News, 23 April, 6/1. The *cattle sidings have been lately set apart for goods waggons.

1876.  Geo. Eliot, Dan. Der., VIII. lxiv. 574. She saw the *cattle-specked fields.

1800.  Hurdis, Favourite Vill., 195. Its *cattle-sprent enclosures.

1883.  C. Creighton, in Fortn. Rev., 1 Aug., 188. If the *cattle-truck and *cattle-steamer had not brought some inveterate plague of the feet.

1887.  Whitaker’s Almanack, 98. On 1st June 1886 there were in London 633 *cattle-troughs and 594 drinking-fountains.

1860.  W. G. Clark, in Vacat. Tour., 62. I found a train of empty trucks and *cattle waggons just starting.

  9.  Special combs.: cattle-bell, a bell borne by the leader of a herd of cattle; cattle feeder, a mechanical arrangement for regulating the supply of food to cattle; cattle-gate, a ‘walk’ or pasture for one’s cattle, beast-gate; cattle-leader, a nose-ring to lead dangerous cattle; cattle-lifter, a marauder or robber who practises the stealing of cattle; so cattle-lifting; cattle-piece, a painting representing cattle; cattle-post, -ranche, -range, -run, station, a district, tract of country, etc., occupied for the pasturing of cattle; cattle-pump, a contrivance by which cattle coming to drink, are made to raise the water out of the well; cattle-raik (Sc.), ‘a common, or extensive pasture, where cattle feed at large’ (Jam.); cattle-trail, a trail or path made by cattle. Also CATTLE-GUARD, -MAN, -PLAGUE.

1872.  Ellacombe, Bells of Ch., vii. 154. Judging from the site of its discovery, and its size, may it not be considered to have been a *cattle bell?

1811.  W. Selwyn, Law Nisi Prius, II. 727, note. Ejectment for 10 acres of pasture and *cattlegates, with their appurtenances, in a close, called, &c. in Yorkshire.

1880.  J. Williams, Rights Common, 83. The phrase cattle gate or beast gate was a popular mode of expressing the ownership of an undivided share in the soil … by putting thereon so many cattle, in common with the cattle of the other owners.

1860.  Froude, Hist. Eng., V. 195. The services of the mountain *cattle-lifter were made valuable to Exeter.

1860.  G. H. K., in Vacat. Tour., 158. His every tradition pointed to *cattle-lifting as an honourable pursuit.

1860.  Ruskin, Mod. Paint., V. IX. vi. 264. From that time *cattle-pieces become frequent…. Cuyp’s are the best.

1865.  Livingstone, Zambesi, xi. 223. Moselekatse’s principal *cattle-posts.

1887.  Pall Mall Gaz., 2 Feb., 11/2. The *cattle ranche business has been almost destroyed in many parts of the United States.

1887.  Spectator, 10 Sept., 1220. Going West to hold *cattle-runs.

1857.  Livingstone, Trav., xii. 220. Numbers of *cattle-stations … are dotted over the landscape.

1878.  Black, Green Past., xiii. 100. Riding along a *cattle-trail on the high-lying and golden-yellow plains of Colorado.