As in: Fish stocks are declining throughout the world’s oceans.
Can “stock” be used to indicate any other animals?
“Stock” is sometimes used coloquially (ie. ‘He comes from good stock’) but I’m not sure whether this is the same “stock” as in the first example.
Thanks for any/all help.
The recipe calls for chicken stock.
The “stocks” refers to the supply which can be drawn upon, and is not so much an animal reference as it is to a supply pool. For fishing, this comparison is relevant, whereas it is not for most other animals. You will hear it used more often in discussions of industrial supply.
Ok, so then “breeding stock” would be a similar meaning, right?
Well, ‘stock’ also has the sense of a progenitor, whether plant or animal, i.e., the source of a line of animals or plants. And it also means animals kept and raised on a farm. Merging both senses, ‘breeding stock’ is the animals kept on a farm for the purposes of breeding and becoming the progenitors of more animals, as opposed to merely being milked or worked or slaughtered for meat.
Thanks.
I wonder then, if fish ‘stock’ as defined in your first post – as a reserve to be drawn on – can also be taken to mean the second (as progenitor)?
Or, is it just getting late and the mounds of copy on the screen are frying my reasoning/language ability?
Only if you’re talking about (e.g., farmed) fry.
All the stock animals on our farm were referred to as stock. We spent a lot of time buying and selling stock and stocking the farm. But we never said the cattle stocks were getting low, although the farmers’ association would have used such an expression.
what does “lock stock and barrel” mean then??
No, not cattle stock, but surely, livestock.
“the stockyards” is where they gather animals for impending slaughter.
jdsmith wrote:
what does “lock stock and barrel” mean then??
I think that the term lock, stock and barrel came from the days of the early western frontier when a business (such as a general store) would sell out to another. Lock being the premises and fixtures, stock being the hard goods and barrel being the dry goods and perishables. Ergo, “He bought the business, lock, stock and barrel”.
At least, that’s what I was told when asked about the origin of the term. Nowdays, it seems to be said to be a “turn key operation”.
[quote=“totallytika”]jdsmith wrote:
what does “lock stock and barrel” mean then??
I think that the term lock, stock and barrel came from the days of the early western frontier when a business (such as a general store) would sell out to another. Lock being the premises and fixtures, stock being the hard goods and barrel being the dry goods and perishables. Ergo, “He bought the business, lock, stock and barrel”.
At least, that’s what I was told when asked about the origin of the term. Nowdays, it seems to be said to be a “turn key operation”.[/quote]
I always thought that was a reference to a parts of a gun, which collectively make up the complete item. i.e the whole fang dangle.
That makes more sense to me, lock being the firing mechanism (e.g., flintlock, matchlock), stock being the wooden butt etc.
The lock, from “flintlock”, where the pin strikes the back of the cartridge; the stock, the bit you put against your shoulder; and the barrel is the bang stick with the hole in the end. Hence “lock, stock, and two smoking barrels”.
But totally tika’s I bet is more authentic.
Stock is the word used for inventory in the UK. Hence a stocktake.
It can also be used to describe the holding tank of military miscreants. The Stockade.
Or is that a cool summery thirst slaker?
OK, I just did a quick GIS
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. 2002.
lock, stock, and barrel
The whole of anything:
Yep, in NZ at least it’s very normal to refer to the animals (cattle at least) as stock.
Brian
Thought of another usage. The quality of paper is referred to as its stock, n’est ce pas?
You can also make a stock responce to something, which you certainly received a lot of albeit in the wrong context.