Talk:Cow (disambiguation)

Page move

Is it okay to move this article to Cow (disambiguation) and then make Cow re-direct to Cattle?? Any objections?? Georgia guy 01:47, 7 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Yes, I object. Cow should be the disambiguation page. - Gilgamesh 01:55, 7 Jan 2005 (UTC)

I counter-object. There are a huge number of links to Cow, and I don't see any of them that are not about cattle. This is one of the clearest examples I have ever seen of one primary meaning and other secondary meanings. (If there were a separate article for female cattle, it would be less clear.) Georgia guy's suggestion is correct. — Pekinensis 17:12, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Yeah, I can't imagine most people aren't thinking of cattle when they type in Cow. I was pretty surprised to see a disambiguation page pop up here. Someone should fix this. Pulsemeat

This page lists many of the acronym expansions that are also on the COW article. Something better should probably be done to avoid the partial duplication and de-synced content. Bovineone 01:36, 27 October 2005 (UTC)

OK, I'll redirect to Cattle.--Commander Keane 18:38, 4 November 2005 (UTC)

I object to the redirect. "Cow" is singular, while "Cattle" is plural. Mikesc86 01:03, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

Sure, but "cattle" doesn't have a gender-neutral singular form; information on the species has to be in a "Cattle" article. Calling the article "Cow" is misleading, but most people searching for "cow" will want the "Cattle" article. Powers 01:59, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

It's crazy isn't it? Such an important animal in human history and there's no general term for them! Beef is a possibility, but it's even more ambiguous than cow -- and I've only ever really heard it used in the plural: beeves. Ewlyahoocom 02:12, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

Scroll down about two-thirds here: [1] =) Powers 12:29, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

Shall I request the move to Bullamacow, or just be bold and do it? Ewlyahoocom 13:33, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

well nobody says "oh hey look there's a cattle over there!", everybody says "cow". I see no need to redirect. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.119.145.97 (talk) 23:58, 29 July 2014 (UTC)

Acronyms

Those acronyms did come from acronym finder, so it's sensable that that link was added, at least in the context of a source.

Got milk?

Why does the cow page say 'Got milk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' on it? This is vandalism and really isn't very informative.

The following discussion is an archived discussion of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the proposal was consensus against move.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 01:25, 22 July 2009 (UTC)

Requested move

Cow (disambiguation) → Cow — Move over redirect that currently redirects to Cattle. Talk:Cattle has a number of discussions resulting from readers having missed the disambiguation page. Put this disambiguation page where it belongs, at the ambiguous base name: Cow. --Una Smith (talk) 21:23, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

• Strong opppose We have disambiguation page and hatnotes so users of Wikipedia will find the right article. But a cow is a cow; the animal is quite obviously the primary term. YeshuaDavid • Talk • 21:55, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

• A cow is an adult female of many kinds of large animals (see List of animal names; the table is sortable by column). That's a dictionary definition. It seems to me that if "a cow is a cow" then the primary topic is a dictionary definition and the disambiguation page without question should occupy Cow. --Una Smith (talk) 22:36, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

Disagree; Wikipedia is not a dictionary. Cow in the dictionary sense can be a wide number of female animals, such as alligators, but the primary usage or "cow" is seperate from the dictionary term you mention. YeshuaDavid • Talk • 23:19, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

Evidently YeshuaDavid and I have in mind two different topics, so is there actually a "primary" topic? YeshuaDavid's topic appears to be the vernacular use of "cow" as the singular of "cattle". Google Books (reliable sources) gets 79,000 hits on cow and 70,200 on cow -cattle, so 8,800 hits (11%) on cow +cattle. I do agree that the vernacular "cow" often does refer to "one cattle", but it also refers to "adult female cattle". Even so, there remains the question of which kind: beef cattle or dairy cattle. --Una Smith (talk) 14:14, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

A cow may be one singular member of the cattle species, or one female of the species, or one milk-producing member of the species. It is still cattle. The vernacular usage is the one we should go with, which is itself the primary usage. YeshuaDavid • Talk • 18:00, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

• Oppose. The current arrangement appears the most logical to me. --DAJF (talk) 06:11, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

• Oppose. What would you expect a reader who searches for "cow" to be looking for? Jafeluv (talk) 06:55, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

• I would expect the reader to be looking for one of the articles on the disambiguation page. Which one is the question. To me, "cow" connotes dairy cow. --Una Smith (talk) 14:14, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

• Comment. The only discussion on Talk:Cattle which seems relevant is Talk:Cattle#Title, and that is actually a move request (without the template) to move Cattle to Cow (on grounds of common usage). Septentrionalis PMAnderson 14:00, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

• Support. Not that it seems to make much of a difference. - Gilgamesh (talk) 14:26, 16 July 2009 (UTC)
• Oppose; Cattle seems to be overwhelmingly the primary topic for "cow". Powers ^T 14:30, 16 July 2009 (UTC)
• Absolute oppose. The primary meaning of cow is cattle. When people say "I saw a cow", do people who hear them think of cattle or a female elephant?? Georgia guy (talk) 14:36, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

• Depends where they are. Often, they mean dairy cow, not beef cow. --Una Smith (talk) 15:21, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

• Both dairy and beef cows are cattle. Georgia guy (talk) 15:26, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

• Yes, no one disagrees about that. But Wikipedia has separate articles for each. We should move the disambiguation page to the ambiguous base name Cow so that incoming links to Cow can be properly disambiguated per Wikipedia:Disambiguation pages with links. --Una Smith (talk) 15:30, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

• Everyone who hears the word "cow" thinks about cattle. Do you know of anyone who interprets the phrase "I saw a cow" as meaning that they saw, for example, a female elephant?? Georgia guy (talk) 15:42, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

• Some places don't have cattle but do have elk, moose, sea lions, elephants; in those places, cow does not mean cattle. Elk hunting permits are specific, cow or bull. Also, in cattle ranching areas, the locals say cattle for cattle, and cow for adult females. It is only people mostly familiar with dairy cattle who call cattle cows, which is reasonable because the vast majority of dairy cattle are cows. Many dairy farms have no bull and don't need one because it is easier and cheaper to buy semen. The point is, Wikipedia links to Cow may intend not Cattle but rather some other article, including some other article related to cattle. --Una Smith (talk) 20:08, 17 July 2009 (UTC)

• Yes, some readers may intend something else than cattle; dab headers exist for those who do. Septentrionalis PMAnderson 20:45, 17 July 2009 (UTC)

• Oppose - the primary topic is the target of the existing redirect - nothing to correct here. Knepflerle (talk) 18:32, 16 July 2009 (UTC)
• Oppose – the present cow->cattle redirect is the least surprising. The only change I would consider making is to have it redirect Cow->Cattle rather than Cow->Cattle#Terminology_of_cattle since that would leave the DAB link visible and since that implies to readers that we think by "Cow" you mean "Cattle" rather than "Adult female cattle". —Ben FrantzDale (talk) 14:35, 19 July 2009 (UTC)
  • A good idea. Septentrionalis PMAnderson 19:56, 19 July 2009 (UTC)
    • Ben's suggestion is precisely what the situation was when this discussion started; two guesses as to who changed the redirect, and the first one doesn't count. Powers ^T 12:30, 20 July 2009 (UTC)

Comments

When the adult female is a cow, the adult male usually is a bull. Bull is a disambiguation page already. --Una Smith (talk) 14:14, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

That's because there is a slew of slang terms, papal bulls, and the surname Bull. Aside from the marginal Henry Cow, this page has none of these. Septentrionalis PMAnderson 16:59, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

In addition, cow is a common name for one animal, bull is not. — AjaxSmack 01:00, 18 July 2009 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Cattle

It says that a cow is a female cattle, yet "cattle" is plural (related to the word "chattel" meaning "property.") Historically, all livestock was "cattle" including sheep and goats. The original name for Bos Taurus was "beef", plural "beeves" though whether that name will ever return to modern speech is doubtful. There's no proper term for a solitary non-gender Bos taurus. Just like there isn't one for Homo sapiens.

Move discussion in progress

There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Center on Wisconsin Strategy which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 15:01, 15 June 2017 (UTC)