Note 576 — Chapter VI · ‘Nicknames.’

This word ‘beef’ as denotive of the living animal was in vogue in the seventeenth century at least. The plural ‘beeves’ is still to be found in our Authorized Version. For instance, Levit. xxii. 19, is translated, ‘Ye shall offer at your own will a male without blemish of the beeves, of the sheep, or of the goats.’ Shakespeare, also, has the word in this sense. He speaks in his ‘Merchant of Venice’ of the—

‘Flesh of muttons, beefs, or goats.’

We have here mutton used in the same manner. Edward the Second was accustomed ‘to breede upp beeves and motonnes in his parkes to serve his household.’ (Liber Niger, Ed. IV.)