I was explaining to my daughters that the French conquest of England led to the English language gaining lots of words. I used as an example of cow and beef. With the cow being the English word and beef being the French. I also pointed out the French were eating the meat and naming it while the English were spending more time raising it. One of my daughters pointed out chicken was chicken and duck was duck both in relation to the animal and the meat. We had some ideas about this but does anybody have a fact?
I wondered that too, until someone pointed out that chicken and duck are poultry, which is of French derivation. As to why the word "poultry" has gone out of fashion, though, I leave to others.
...and lamb.