rural translations

The book ‘A Million Acre Masterpiece– Images of Australia’s largest cattle stations’ has explanations for many uniquely Australian outback words and expressions used to describe various types of cattle, such as: ‘cleanskin’, ‘forest gnome’, ‘killer’, ‘piker’, ‘poddy’, ‘scrubber’, ‘stranger’, ‘micky’, or ‘hairy’. As is the case in many countries, many of these very specific terms are only understood by those working in the industry.

Below are words for ‘cow’ in different languages. These translations have been gathered from various references plus an amazingly comprehensive site that lists the word for ‘cow’ in more than 500 different languages and dialects, Just Cows/Solo Vacas. This list was compiled be Eduardo Tobar of Madrid (Spain).

If you have any suggested corrections (including punctuation) or additions please do let me know.

Words for ‘cow’ in other languages:

Word for Cow	Language & Country
Europe:
‘kÿr’	Icelandic (Iceland)
‘ko’	Danish (Denmark) and Swedish (Sweden)
‘koe’	Dutch (The Netherlands) and Flemish (Belgium)
‘ku’	Norwegian (Norway) and Yiddish (Germanic language of eastern European jews)
‘kuh’	German (Germany)
‘kràva’	Czech (Czech republic)
‘krava’	Macedonian (Macedonia), Croatian (Croatia), Bulgarian (Bulgaria), Ukranian (Ukraine), Slovak (Slovakia), Slovene (Slovenia), Serbian (Serbia) and Bosnia).
‘krowa’	Polish (Poland)
‘karova’	Belarusian (Belarus)
‘korova’	Russian (Russia)
‘karvé’	Lithuanian (Lithuania)
‘vache’	French (France)
‘vacca’	Italian (Italy)
‘vacâ’	Romanian (Romania)
‘vaca’	Portugese (Portugal and Brazil) and Catalan (Spain, southern France)
‘vaca’	Spanish (Spain and many Spanish-speaking South American countries.) (The literal translation of ‘vaquero’ is ‘cow man’. ‘Buckaroo’ is common in some southern parts of the U.S., and it is thought to originate from ‘vaquero’ because the letter ‘v’ is pronounced as ‘b’ in Spanish.)
‘goys’	Latvian (Latvia)
‘lopë’	Albanian
‘behia’	Basque (South of France/northern Spain)
‘lehmä’	Finnish (Finland)
‘ayelada’	Greek (Greece)
Africa:
‘koei’	Afrikaans (South Africa) (based on the Dutch language)
‘nkopo’	Bobe (Equatorial Guinea)
‘ngombo’	Bobangi (Congo)
‘ngombe’	Kikuyu (Kenya)
‘ng'ombe’	Swahili (Kenya & East Africa)
‘xaafu’	Bukusu (Kenya)
‘inkomazi’	Zulu (south Africa)
‘ente’	Kiga (Uganda, Tanzania & Congo)
‘sac’	Somali (Somalia)
‘saniya’	Hausa (Nigeria)
South America:
‘waka’	Quechua (mainly in Peru & Bolivia but also southern Columbia and Ecuador, northern-western Argentina and northern Chile)
‘qachu’	Aymara (mainly in Bolivia, but also Peru, Chile and Argentina)
‘vaca’	Spanish (many Spanish-speaking countries such as Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay and Peru)
‘vaca’	Portugese (Portugal and Brazil)
Middle East:
‘baqara’	Arabic (Saudi Arabia)
‘parah’	Hebrew (Israel)
‘gow’	Dari (Afghanistan)
‘mange’	Kurdish (Iraq, Turkey and Syria)
Asia:
‘gay’	Hindi (India)
‘gaa’	Rajasthani (Rajasthan, India)
‘gaay’	Urdu (Pakistan)
‘nwa’	Burmese (Burma)
‘amso’	Korean (Korea)
‘ushi’	Japanese (Japan)
‘mu niu’	Mandarin (China)
‘ngau-na’	Cantonese (China)
Pacific:
‘kau’	Maori (New Zealand)
‘povi’	Samoan (Samoa)
‘bulumakau’	Fijian (Fiji)
‘pipi’	Hawaiian (Hawaii)
Britain:
‘cou’	Scottish (Lowland Scotland & some northern Ireland)
‘bò’	Irish (Ireland)
‘buwch’	Welsh (Wales)

Explanations for many uniquely Australian outback words describing various types of cattle can be found in the book ‘A Million Acre Masterpiece — Images of Australia's largest cattle stations’.

Other Cow-related Words Used on Cattle Stations (Ranches):

Words for unbranded cattle:

• ‘cleanskin’ – Australia
• ‘maverick’ – U.S.
• ‘orejanos’ – Spanish-speaking South American countries

Words for gathering the cattle together into a mob:

• ‘muster’ – Australia
• ‘roundup’ – U.S. & Canada
• ‘acubilar’ – Spanish-speaking South American countries
• ‘repuntar la hacienda’ – Argentina

Words for a group of cattle:

• ‘mob’ – Australia
• ‘herd’ – U.S.
• ‘vacada’ – Spanish-speaking South American countries
• ‘ganado’ or ‘hacienda’ – Argentina
• ‘los ganados’ – means ‘the cattle’ in Spain and Spanish-speaking South American countries

Words for a group of cattle that take fright and rush off (most likely to be in the middle of the night):

• ‘rush’ – Australia
• ‘stampede’ – U.S.
• ‘estampida’ – Spanish

Words for a track made by cattle:

• ‘pad’ – Australia
• ‘trail’ – U.S. & Canada
• ‘cañadas’ – Spain