section_path: Etymology
section_name: Etymology
paragraph_text: Etymology
  
  The word meat comes from the Old English word mete, meaning food in general. In modern usage, meat primarily means skeletal muscle with its associated fat and connective tissue, but it can include offal, other edible organs such as liver and kidney. The term is sometimes used in a more restrictive sense to mean the flesh of mammalian species (pigs, cattle, sheep, goats, etc.) raised and prepared for human consumption, to the exclusion of fish, other seafood, insects, poultry, or other animals.
  
  English has specialized terms for the meat of particular animals, deriving from the Norman conquest of England in 1066: while the animals retained their English names, their meat as brought to the tables of the invaders was named in Norman French. These names came to be used by the entire population.