“What would happen to all the animals if we stopped eating them? Wouldn’t we be overrun with cows and pigs and chickens if we stopped?” “If everyone stopped eating these animals, they would go extinct. Is that what you want, Ms. Vegan and Mr. Vegan? You don’t care if these animals go extinct??” Join me today as I address these questions.
I believe that shifting the way we talk about, think about, and behave towards other animals will impact them positively in the long term. But I also believe that as people who care about animals, we need to be politically engaged, because it’s not enough to change hearts and minds; we also have to change laws in order to protect animals from violence and exploitation. If you’re looking to become empowered and emboldened to be a voice for animals, this is the episode for you.
Whereas the word veal in English simply means “flesh of a calf” and pork in English means “flesh of a pig used as food,” hidden in many of the Anglo-Saxon/Old English and Proto-Indo-European words for the living animals are clues about the physical, behavioral, or vocal characteristics of the living animals, reflecting a tendency to name animals based on typical attributes or activities.
Supporters receive written transcripts of each podcast episode.
Roughly 10,000 new words entered the English language during the Norman occupation and assimilation, particularly those having to do with the world of the ruling class.
The effects of the linguistic class division are most apparent in the culinary realm, where words used by the aristocracy have French origins and words used by the commoners have Germanic origins.
This is evident even today in the way we talk about certain animals, particularly those typically eaten by Westerners, with words rooted in Anglo-Saxon / Old English to indicate the living animals and words rooted in Old French to indicate the slaughtered animal as flesh for consumption.
In a previous episode on words for different colors, an episode called Ingrained: A Crush of Color, I talked about the names we have for colors based on animals who have been crushed to create the color or from whom we’ve extracted their secretions to create colors or pigments. Today, we talk about the names for colors whose histories are a lot easier on animals, because they’re inspired by the colors of living animals.
Thank you for listening to and supporting Animalogy Podcast.
Thanks to TV host Bethany Crouch at Good Day Sacramento, I visit the studios monthly to share my message of compassion and wellness.
With the launch of Animalogy Podcast, it was an opportunity to talk about animal-related words and expressions; and in light of the hundreds of millions of hens used and killed for the egg industry, it was an opportunity to highlight how to use aquafaba, the magic bean water everyone is talking about, to make meringue in general (and meringue cookies in particular).
For years, the dairy industry has been trying to make it illegal for nondairy milk companies to use the word “milk,” asserting that the word “milk” should be used to refer only to the lacteal secretions of cows. Today, I’m joined by Michele Simon, public health lawyer and director of the first trade group to represent plant-based foods companies, to talk about the history and motives behind this agenda.
Thank you for sharing and supporting Animalogy.
Animalogy is all about the animal-related words and phrases in the English language, but did you know there are animals in the very letters that make up our words? If I haven’t blown your mind yet, check out this episode to learn more about this fascinating history.
Supporters receive gifts such as written episode transcripts.
Semantics play a significant role in shaping public perception about animals and animal welfare. The meat, dairy, and egg industries go to great lengths to remove harsh terminology and replace it with euphemisms that conceal the truth and sanitize violence. In today’s episode, I talk to someone who knows this all too well: Paul Shapiro, Vice President of Policy at The Humane Society of the United States. Join us as we discuss euphemisms and doublespeak used by animal agriculture and the best terms for plant-based and cultured meat.
Supporters receive an additional conversation with Paul once the interview ended.
If you’ve made a serious faux pas and need to acknowledge it with humility, you might be said to be “eating crow” or “eating humble pie,” both phrases of which involve animals — or do they?
Supporters receive every written transcript of Animalogy episodes.
Share any and all of these graphics on social media:
