English has distinct words for the male and female of many common animal species. For example, we have bull / cow, rooster / hen, ram / ewe, stallion / mare, boar / sow, man / woman.
However, we also have words for castrated male animals (those which have had the testicles removed): steer, capon, wether, gelding, hog, eunuch.
Do the male terms include or exclude the castrated case? If I refer to a male sheep as a ram, and it later turns out to be a wether, have I spoken incorrectly or merely imprecisely?
I would be interested in common, technical, and historical usage.
Best Answer
Properly speaking, these terms are not exclusive; for example, it is perfectly correct to describe a steer as a "castrated bull". However, "bull" is certainly not the usual term to use for a castrated bull. This is due to a process that's sometimes called "Q-based narrowing" whereby preference for a more-specific term causes avoidance of a less-specific one in certain cases. For example, a thumb is usually referred to as a "thumb", not a "finger", but no one would bat an eye at the phrase "ten fingers and ten toes".