What is the masculine sheep
A peculiar question that many ask themselves is the one that titles this lesson from a PROFESSOR: What is the male sheep? The answer, although it seems surprising, can have different meanings or different interpretations, as we will see next.
In general, we find it strange to find animal species in which it is not possible to differentiate between the male and the female. There are also cases in which the name that the female receives has nothing to do with the one that the male receives, and vice versa. Do you think if we start this new lesson from a TEACHER? We are going to find out if the sheep has a male and what is in the following lines. We started!
Index
- Does the masculine sheep exist?
- The ram is the male of the sheep
- Other peculiar cases
Does the masculine sheep exist?
Let's see which is the masculine sheep. This noun, according to the definition of the RAE, describes a woolly mammal with various names that usually generally found domesticated and from which milk is expressed in females and meat and wool in both males and in females. Nevertheless,
it does not differentiate between masculine and feminine. That is, there is no ‘sheep’, however, this is a term that is used in certain countries, such as Venezuela (where also serves to describe a patient and suffering man) or Cuba, but not in most Hispanic nations speakers.But is there a masculine name for sheep? The truth is that yes, and it is called ram. However, there is a lot of confusion in this sense for a very simple reason, because it is a term that comes from Latin, called ovis.
Formerly, in Latin the masculine gender was not differentiated from the feminine. That is, all the sheep were called ovis yesteryear, without sex differentiation. As this was a farming and livestock society, and practically all the herds were made up of females, they implemented a common name for all, in a way that was more practical.
Be that as it may, stick with a detail. There is no masculine for the noun sheep since it is a epicene noun. However, the male of the sheep is the ram. It is a subtle difference, but it is convenient to be clear about it because it is key in this lesson.
The ram is the male of the sheep.
Although the ram is the male of the sheep, as a word there is no proper male. However, it is not bad said if one speaks of a female sheep or a male sheep.
But if you want to be a purist, the ram is the common term used for this animal species. However, its definition is not practically the same, since it is a ruminant and ovine mammal that has robust horns. It differs in that it can only be male and its horns are stretched transversely and in a spiral. However, they do resemble in the fact that they are practically always domestic, with thick and flexible wool. black or white and used by the man for their meat and wool, not for their milk, since only the females possess.
By the way, if you want to find sheep, you can do it on the continents of Asia, Europe and America, where they are most abundant. There are them in the mountains, but also in deserts, and they are mainly domesticated.
Other peculiar cases.
Regarding the male sheep, there are also other unique cases in the animal world that also easily lead to confusion. In most cases, there is no problem to differentiate between male and female. Think of the dog and the bitch, or the cat and the cat.
However, there are animal species in which we only know a feminine noun to distinguish. For example, could you say the masculine of the whale? And of the snake?
Similarly, there are other species in which it happens as with sheep. The word itself does not have a masculine, so the substantivation of the masculine and feminine are totally different. We find very unique cases, such as cow. Obviously, there is no term called ‘empty’, not even Bacchus, which refers to the Roman god of wine. That is why the male in this species is called a bull.
As with the cow, it happens with other species, although with particularities. For example, with the goat. The male can be considered as a goat, but surely it is a word that you have not heard much. In general, it is known by various names that are also commonly used with insults: male goat, kid, cabrón, goat or snitch.
Without a doubt, the Spanish language is very rich, which is why we have a fantastic heritage of languages such as Latin, Greek or Arabic, and today we enjoy enormous possibilities to communicate with a variety of terms.
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