From Old French 'buef' (ox), PIE *gʷōus (cow) — kin to 'cow' but entering English by a different path, creating the Norman animal/meat split.
The flesh of a cow, bull, or ox, used as food.
From Anglo-Norman 'boef,' from Old French 'buef' (modern French 'bœuf'), from Latin 'bovem,' accusative of 'bōs' (ox, cow), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷōus (cow). After the Norman Conquest of 1066, the French-speaking aristocracy used their own words for meat served at table, while the English-speaking peasants who tended the animals kept the Germanic words 'cow' and 'ox.' This linguistic split — Germanic animal, French meat — is one of the most famous