Re[2]: Res: Res: [tied] Reindeer domestication : two origins

At 2:40:10 PM on Thursday, December 18, 2008, Andrew
Jarrette wrote:

> As an aside, what _does_ one call the singular of "cattle"
> in English?

'Cow' is pretty standard U.S. usage. 'A head of cattle' is
correct, if a bit clumsy.

> One can't say "a cattle", nor "an ox" because that's a
> castrated male, isn't it,

Not necessarily; the term is also correctly applied to any
large bovine animal, and I've seen it used as a singular of
'cattle'.

> and "a neat" is too archaic and refers only to draught
> animals I think,

No, it's simply 'a bovine animal'.

Brian