Origin of the slang AmE and BrE usage of "beef"
Beef began its life as an intransitive verb in 1888 and soon took on the noun meaning in 1899 appearing in such expressions as "What's your beef? and "I had a beef with him" (not a steak).
Beef as verb [1888] Slang (originally U.S.): To complain, gripe, grumble, protest. Hence verbal noun ‘beefing.’ Earlier it meant to talk loudly or idly.
- 1888 “He'll beef an' kick like a steer an' let on he won't never wear 'em.”—New York World, 13 May
Beef as noun [1899] Slang (originally U.S.): A complaint, protest, grievance, gripe, objection, argument, a bone of contention.
- 1899 “He made a Horrible Beef because he couldn't get Loaf Sugar for his Coffee.”—Fables in Slang (1900) by George Ade, page 80
Regarding its origin I could find two main assumptions:
according to Etymonline it comes from American soldiers slang:
- The origin and signification are unclear; perhaps it traces to the common late 19c. complaint of U.S. soldiers about the quantity or quality of beef rations.
While this extract from Quora suggests that is origin is from rhyming slang:
- As regards the etymology of beef, it seems to go back to the cry of hot beef! meaning ‘stop thief!’ (quasi-rhyming slang but more by coincidence than design, since it is far older than rhyming slang's first widespread use in the 1820s-30s); thus the 18th century cry hot beef, to raise a hue and cry. This became ‘to raise an alarm’ or ‘make a fuss’ - the presence of crime was now irrelevant - and thence ‘to shout’. The 'complain' use followed that. Then (both in the late 19th century) came ‘to argue’, ‘to give someone away to the authorities’, and so on.
- The figurative usage of "beef" appears to be mainly and originally an AmE one, so the reference to American soldiers (and possibly cowboys) sounds reasonable, but the rhyming slang assumption would make it a BrE expression which, for some reason, became popular in the U.S., or are we talking about two different stories which originated the same expression?
In short, is there a plausible and reliable origin of the figurative usage of "beef"?
Related: Do you have a beef with me?
This expression, whether in its noun form have a beef, or its verb form, to beef, may come down to us from Cockney rhyming slang.
Beef rhymes with Thief
Beeves (archaic) rhymes with Thieves
Imagine a bustling market day. In the narrow streets, a neighborhood pickpocket weaves through the crowd, pursued by a stranger shouting, "Stop! Thief!" Imagine that none too few persons in the market know the thief, or consider themselves bound to him by common interest. To muffle the alarm, the bemused sympathizers call out "Hot Beef!" and amidst the confusion the rascal slips away.
Too fanciful for you? Well, then, if you will, accept only that Cockney rhyming slang is a real phenomenon, without delving into the reasons for its adoption.
From Historically Speaking:
This phrase has been around for a couple of centuries now and comes from the London criminal underworld.
Well known for its use of cockney rhyming slang, phrases aren’t always what they appear to be.
The traditional shout of “stop thief!” was mocked by being replaced by “hot beef, hot beef” in criminal circles where it was thought that the shouts of “stop thief” were nothing more than making fuss about nothing.
The 1811 edition of the “Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue” defines Beef as: “to cry beef; to give the alarm.”
Here are four related entries from the Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1811):
TO SING. To call out; the coves sing out beef; they call out stop thief.
BEEF. To cry beef; to give the alarm. They have cried beef on us. Cant.--To be in a man's beef; to wound him with a sword. To be in a woman's beef; to have carnal knowledge of her. Say you bought your beef of me, a jocular request from a butcher to a fat man. implying that he credits the butcher who serves him.
DUMMEE. A pocket book. A dummee hunter. A pick-pocket, who lurks about to steal pocket books out of gentlemen's pockets. Frisk the dummee of the screens; take all the bank notes out of the pocket book, [D]ing the dummee, and bolt, they sing out beef. Throw away the pocket book, and run off, as they call out "stop thief."
SQUEAK. A narrow escape, a chance: he had a squeak for his life. To squeak; to confess, peach, or turn stag. They squeak beef upon us; they cry out thieves after us. CANT.
Here is the best interpretation of BEEF from World Wide Words:
We have to go back further to trace the verb to its beginnings. In the early eighteenth century there was a slang phrase to cry hot beef or give hot beef, which meant to raise the alarm, to start pursuit or to set up a hue and cry. This may have been based on a street hawker’s cry and to have been a pun on stop thief! The New Canting Dictionary records in 1725, “to cry beef upon us: they have discover’d us and are in Pursuit of us”. A few years later, the verb beef by itself also meant to raise a hue and cry and this continued in use well into the nineteenth century.
[[How's them apples?]] The part of the entry I quote is one paragraph, as it appears above.