Cows, Cattle, and Maverick

A Texan rancher Samuel Maverick, Who never his calves and cattle branded, That caused to create the word maverick— An eccentric rebel born of cow shed! Now, before the word breached its national, Borders it meant ‘all cattle unbranded’, And before that, ‘one unconventional’, Mutating still: ‘master-less quadruped’. Today, hidebound means man narrow-minded, Long back it meant skinny cattle of drought, Bare to bones and ribs all but sticking out, Hidebound is man parochial, pettyhead! Holy cow’, one may say to interject, It oft means a ‘sacred cow’ one can’t touch, You so much as just touch and get hit, ouch! Elsewhere it may amount to mixing fact. The word ‘cow’ comes from Sanskrit ‘gau’, Comes cattle from Latin chattel— Movable wealth French calls capitale, Everywhere it is holier than thou! To migrants then, cattle was sole money, In Roman language , money is ‘Pecu’ From Indo Aryan Sanskrit word ‘pashu’, From it came in English: pecuniary! Words respect no boundary line, As do birds and religion and music, Only man’s busy borders to define; To change maybe we need a maverick. _____________________________________ Ways of words | 03.10.2009 |